Can They Survive the Truth?
by buffyfaith19
Summary: Femslash. Kate/Claire are trying to start a new life with Aaron when they find out someone is hunting them down. Once they find out Aaron is the target, they look to their friends to help find out who it is. When Claire learns that Kate has lied to her..
1. Chapter 1

**Title: Can They Survive the Truth?**

**Show: Lost **

**Pairing: Kate/Claire **

**Summary: This story was started at the end of season 3. After seeing some of the early Kate/Claire scenes in season 6, I was inspired to finish it. The basic plot is that Kate/Claire are trying to start a new life with Aaron when they find out someone is hunting them down. Once they find out Aaron is the target, they look to their friends to help find out who it is. Along the way Claire discovers more than a few secrets Kate has been keeping from her, which add to the already tense situation they are dealing with.**

**Disclaimer:I don't own the characters or the shows, they are property of ABC Studios, Bad Robot and Touchstone Televsion. No profit is made from this story.**

**Can They Survive the Truth?**

**Chapter 1.**

**May 11****th****, 2010**

**The Island.**

Kate woke up to a loud bang in the distance, something that was neither new nor scary after so much time on the island, yet it still causes her to sit up and listen more closely. After a few moments there is another bang and then numerous quick, loud, pulsing bangs, followed by a giant explosion that filled the sky with an orange cloud of smoke and fire.

Now it wasn't just Kate that was awake, Claire woke up and quickly reached over and grabbed onto Kate's arm, "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know, but we can't stay here." Kate said, getting up and packing her things, while keeping a close eye on the large cloud of smoke in the sky to the north.

Claire quickly picked up Aaron and smiled as he remained sound asleep, blissfully oblivious to the dangers around him. After securing him in her arms, she grabbed the two bags from the ground and walked back over to Kate who was staring up into the sky, "You don't think they know we're here do you? We were so careful."

"We always knew this day could come and now it's time to do what has so to be done." Kate said in a melancholy tone, turning to Claire and smiling, "Take Aaron down below and don't open the hatch for anything. I'll be back in 24 hours and I'll give you the signal and if all goes well, we'll be free to go back home and live our lives the way we always talked about."

"No, I don't like this plan anymore. It's too risky." Claire said, grabbing onto Kate's arm to get her attention, "You don't have Jack or Sawyer to help. There's no Locke, Sayid or even Ben to do the dirty work for you and I don't want you to become a killer."

"Listen Claire, I don't want to do this anymore than you want me to, but we have no choice. If they are here it isn't to bring us back safely, they are here to kill us and I will not let that happen to you or Aaron." Kate rubbed Aaron's sweet little head and kissed it gently, before turning her attention back to Claire, "We've come so far and I love you way too much to let it end this way. Just know I'll be back and never give up hope and we'll get through this."

Reaching out to touch Kate's cheek, Claire leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. They kissed briefly, before Kate pulled away, "You need to go now. I'll be with you soon."

Claire could only watch as Kate disappeared into the thick forest and that was her cue to run like hell to the secret hideaway. The ground was rough and covered with leaves and branches, some still smoking from the massive explosion that rocked the island.

Small fires began to appear as the debris from the sky began plummeting down on the island, causing Claire to run even faster, hopping over tree stumps and wounded animals as she made a beeline for hatch that she could finally see just ahead.

She stopped at the entrance, punched in the code and then stepped back as the hatch began to open. She rushed inside and began to pull it closed as fast as she could. Once she heard it lock, she climbed down the stairs and put Aaron down in his crib and walked inside to the computer room and sat down and turned on every switch she could find until the half dozen monitors on the wall began to light up.

Once she had things up and running, she began to search for Kate using the tracking device Locke had given them. A flashing red icon showed Kate travelling north along the beach, moving ever closer to the source of the explosion.

Claire put on the head phones and put the microphone up to her mouth, "Kate, can you hear me?" She waited a few minutes and then repeated her message. Once again she waited, but still not response. Growing increasingly more anxious by the second, Claire repeated her call to Kate another time.

"I'm here." Kate said in a very low whisper, ducking down under some cover as she watched a handful of men search the area, each armed with a semi automatic rifle and walkie talkie.

"I'm so glad you're okay. You are okay, right?" Claire asked, hoping Kate would confirm here wishes.

"I'll be okay, I got hit with something that fell out of the sky, but aside from a nasty bruise on my shoulder I'll live." Kate said, taking another look at the dark black and blue mark on her left shoulder, "Knowing you and Aaron safe I feel a lot better."

"Can you tell who's there?" Claire asked, hoping to get the answer she was looking for.

"Well, I know this was no accident, but I still can't make out who's here." Kate moved a little closer to the large crater, ducking down at the sight of people moving about, "There's an armed group of men searching the area, but I'll need to get a little closer before I can tell if it's them."

"Don't put yourself in danger Kate." Claire said, still not used to Kate's new life as the island's guardian angel, "Why don't you come back here, we can monitor things so much easier from inside here."

"You know why." Kate replied almost angrily, calming herself before she continued, "They are after me and if I was in there with you they wouldn't hesitate to nuke that place, as long as they got rid of me. I never wanted to put you in this kind of danger and yet here we are, in another mess I've gotten us into."

"Come on Kate, you know this wasn't your fault. Everyone on the island is in danger from these people. We saw who they are and what they did and they are not going to rest until we are dead, not just the 6 of you." Claire said, referring to the 6 survivors who got off the island and achieved a form of fame, "Anyway, I'm trying to get the camera on the north side to work, but I think it must've been destroyed from the original blast."

"I think so," Kate nodded, "This whole area is a mess. Whatever hit it made a giant crater just to the west of me, by the old creek."

"What else do you see?"

Kate peaked out from under her cover, looked around at the men wandering around, almost having a heart attack as one of them walked right up beside her, "OMG, someone is right here. I'm going to have to call you back."

"Kate. Kate." Claire yelled, slamming down the microphone when she heard the line go dead.

As the man moved even closer to her, Kate reached into her jeans, pulled out a long, sharp knife and stood up slowly. Once he moved to the beach side of her hiding spot and away from the other men, she crept up behind him, took a deep breath and made her move.

She tapped him on the shoulder and as he turned around, she smiled, waiting for him to put his weapon down just a little, before lunging forward, knocking the man to the ground. She head butted him in the nose twice, kicked the gun out of his hand and slid her knife up against his throat, "Well, how about you tell me who you are working for and I'll think about letting you live."

Blood dripped profusely from the man's nose, his eyes were glazed over as he looked up at Kate staring down at him, but he still refused to speak.

Rolling her eyes at his macho posturing, "I don't have time for your silent crap, so let's just save us both some time and you some pain and tell me who you're working for?"

He stared up at Kate, defiantly ignoring her demands, "You might as well kill me, assuming you can, because telling you who I work for is the same as death."

"Really?" Kate chuckled, wishing Sayid were here to speed the interrogation process along, "Somehow I doubt that, because if you tell me who it is, I'll make sure he can't hurt anyone again?"

"Listen lady, I don't who you are, but I don't see you taking out my boss, no offense."

"None taken." Kate said without blinking an eye, while sliding her knife across a sharpening stone, as the man looked on, "Smarter people than you have underestimated me, so if that's how you want it, you might as well have some last words if you want. I can't risk you going back there and blowing my cover."

"You don't look like a killer, so why don't you just leave and I won't say a thing." He looked Kate over from head to toe and shook his head, "I don't see you as a threat, so I wouldn't be lying either."

"Well that's where you're wrong." Kate replied, grabbing the man firmly around the neck, squeezing tightly as he squirmed to get loose, "I'm sorry I have to do this, I don't much like blood, but I have a family to protect and you are loose end I can't afford."

"Wait." He gasped as the reality of death finally hit him, "If you are someone who can stop this man, then I need immunity and a new identity. Can you do that for me?"

Taking much longer to ponder the man's offer than she needed, Kate finally released her grip slightly and stared down at the newly cooperative man, "I know some people who have that kind of power, but I need real information and I need it now. Time is running out, so start talking."

"I don't know who the head boss is, I work for a man who takes orders from someone else." The man muttered, struggling to catch his breath, "His name is William Jallow, he's a mercenary for hire, but an expensive one, with an extensive military background who has many high powered contacts in all the main government agencies."

"That's a start." Kate nodded, finally feeling like she was getting somewhere, "What's your mission here? Why did you bomb this spot on the island?"

"All I know is that we were given these coordinates, ordered to make a crater and then look for a gold plated chest. We weren't given details as to what's in the chest, our job is to find it and bring it back."

"Bring it back where?"

"If all goes well we would rendezvous in a small abandoned air field just outside of Las Vegas in three days."

"One last question." Kate said calmly, keeping her eye on the other men wandering around in the distance, "Have you heard of any of these names before, John Locke, Jack Sheppard or Ben Linus?"

"Yes, we know of all of them." He said, as if it was common knowledge, "They are on the shoot to kill list as our 5 others from that flight.

Kate's eyes lit up, "Really? And who would they be?"

"Sayid Jarrah, Jin Kwon, Shannon Rutherford, Hugo Reyes and you Miss Austen." The man replied, listing the names without hesitation.

Kate took a step back at the mention of her name, "How do know you me?"

"I don't know you, but my boss does, or his boss, but from the information I have on you, I can see why." He said with a smug smile, "You've been a very busy woman haven't you Kate? Fugitive from the law, murderer, arsonist, thief and of course the ever popular, child kidnapper."

"That's a lie. I've never kidnapped anyone, let alone a child."

"I'm not talking about now, I'm talking about the future, when you cheat on Claire and steal her child." The man said with a sinister smile.

Kate stood in silence, unable to respond to such an unbelievable comment.

"I thought that would get your attention." He said with a smirk, "It's a funny world we live in, isn't it? I have to admit it freaked me out when I heard it, but when you see it for yourself, you can't help but believe."

"I don't know what you've been smoking or what you've been told, but I would never do that to Claire. Ever." Kate yelled, becoming increasingly agitated by the man's ridiculous stories, "I'm finished talking to you and if you don't shut up I'm going to forget our agreement and kill you right now."

"Let's not lose our heads now." The man said, backing away from Kate's angry glare, "Don't shoot the messenger. If you don't believe me, you need find my boss's office, open his safe and look at the interesting video footage he has of you, Claire and a few others from this island. It'll give you goose bumps."

"You need to go now." Kate pushed the man south down the beach, "Just leave, get into the water and hope you find an island somewhere."

"I know the future and I'm around to see it, so I'm not too worried about dying." He said with a strange smile as he walked out into the ocean and began to slowly swim away.

After watching him disappear out of sight, Kate tried to shake off what she'd heard, but the idea that she would hurt Claire like that made her weak at the knees and not in a good way.

** The Hatch**.

Claire continued to try and reach Kate on the cell phone, but kept getting her voice mail. Angered that she was stay out of contact for so long, Claire got up and paced back and forth inside the small room.

The phone rang and a smile instantly appeared on her face. She picked up quickly, "I'm so glad you called back."

"It's not Kate, it's Jack." He said from a small gas station, well off the beaten path to Las Vegas, "I take it that she's not there?"

"No, she's out doing commando crap that Sayid should be doing." Claire said, still bitter than nobody was around to help Kate, "Where the hell is he anyway?"

"I don't know, but I just found out something about Kate that you need to know."

"Look, if it's something bad just save it." Claire said, getting tired of hearing Jack's doomsday predictions about her and Kate's relationship, "You've been on her case ever since things didn't work for you two. Why should I believe anything you say? If you recall, the last two times you've warned me about Kate, they turned out to be lies, misinformation, given to you to do just what you did, cause problems."

Jack cringed at hearing his failures tossed back in his face, "I'm sorry about those and I apologized for that. But this information is from a very reliable source."

Claire laughed, "Is there any such thing anymore? You should know from living on that island and from being around dear old dad, that nothing is what it seems."

"Claire, this is very serious and I would not tell you if I didn't confirm it myself."

"Fine, just say it." Claire growled, "Get it out. Bash Kate some more and then you can leave us alone."

"It's not like that at all." Jack sighed, regretting his previous actions, "I admit I didn't handle things well when I found out you two were, well, together. I'm happy for you now and I honestly want what's best for you, but you need to hear this."

"Get on with it."

Jack nodded to himself, "Okay, this comes from dad, okay, and you know he loves you and he wants what's best and he even likes Kate, but he's also a very cautious and untrusting man and that's why he did a very thorough background check on Kate."

"This is just great." Claire yelled, wishing she'd never her new family, "What are you going to do, tell me she forgot to return a library book? That she skipped class, that she wasn't perfect?"

"If you would just calm down and listen you might find this interesting." Jack said, pausing for Claire to reply, but happily continued when she didn't, "Before Kate ever killed someone, she had a juvenile record a mile long. But that's not what's interesting, what's interesting is the who she was always arrested with."

"Oh god, stop making me guess and just tell me what it is that's so horrible."

"Well, I think it's bit of a coincidence to believe that her partner in crime was none other than Naomi Dorrit."

"What? The woman Locke killed? That's not possible." Claire said, still not fully grasping what she'd just heard, "Kate said she didn't know her."

"I know she did, but they have a record together that started when they were 16 and didn't end until they were 19 and Naomi moved away. From what we've been able to uncover, they kept in touch up until the very night Kate got on that plane."

Claire fell back in her chair, her heart not believing a word Jack said, but a tiny part of her brain couldn't help but wonder, "I have to go now. Say hi to dad."

**End of Chapter 1**.

**Comments and feedback are always welcome and appreciated**.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2.**

**Angel's Nightclub.  
Los Angeles, California**.

Sayid sat in a corner booth, enjoying the view of the pretty young woman who was dancing on the table across from him, but his attention was clearly on the man on the other side of the booth, "I think it's time we stopped dancing around the real issue here. You have something I want and I have something you need, so why not just make the exchange?"

"Sayid, you must know that what I need for exceeds what you want." The elderly man with the thin gray goatee and tiny ponytail snarled his upper lip, "If you are not willing to up your side of the deal, then we have nothing more to talk about."

"As always, I'm willing to make a reasonable offer, but I'm not sure what you're looking for."

"Fair enough." The man said, leaning across the table, his shiny silver general's badge standing out on the well worn Iraqi Republican Guard uniform he wore, "We know you have been in contact with John Locke since you left the island, we need to know where he is."

"You are no longer a general my good friend, it appears you over estimate your powers in this country." Sayid said with a friendly laugh, scanning the room for other possible threats as he looked back at the general, "One day that may prove costly.

"That almost sounds like a threat, but if you must know, I have even more power here, because money is power and I have a near unlimited supply of that. Oil my friend, that's where the money is." He said with a deep, almost demented laugh, "Now, let us get back to business, where is John Locke?"

Sayid smiled and sat back against the wall, wondering what his old commander wanted with John Locke, "Rahim, you know as well as I do that John never stays in the same place long, besides, I thought you cut your ties with him long before the flight?"

"Things have changed." The general said, sipping his wine as he studied Sayid closely, "His knowledge of the island is imperative to my next project."

"I can't speak for John, but I do know that he has very bad feelings when it comes to you and your group. Money is not going to change his mind."

"Money isn't the only thing people desire in life. John has been searching for answers to questions is whole life, which is exactly what I think will lure him back into the fold."

Getting up from the booth, Sayid held out his hand to the general, "Well, I wish you well in your search for John, but I'm not going to help you find him."

"Sayid, why are you so loyal to John Locke?" Rahim asked, genuinely curious as to Sayid's motives, "He isn't loyal to anyone but himself. From the information I have, you and he did not always get along, almost coming to blows at times. Now I know you want what I have, so please rethink your position on this. I will find John, with or without your help, but this offer will not be here again after today."

Sayid stopped for a moment and then took a couple steps forward, turning again to look at the general, "I want to know who Nadia has been in contact with since she was presumed dead. I saw her die. I need to know what happened and I need to know if she's a threat to me or my friends. If you dare toy with me over the woman I loved, you will regret it."

"I would never do that to you. In spite of our differences, I consider you a friend, a colleague and guarantee you that all your questions about Nadia will be answered. I can't however guarantee how you will react to the information you receive." Rahim said with a cryptic grin, "Now, I'm sure there's a part of you that thinks you can find out all this on your own, but that's where things get rather unpleasant."

"I see, so you'd destroy this information just because I didn't tell you where Locke was?" Sayid said with a hearty laugh, "No wonder you were promoted so often."

"Insults aside, do we have a deal?"

"We do, but first, I need proof that you have this information."

"Agreed." The general said, holding out his hand to Sayid, who took it and shook it firmly and then two men hugged and finished their meal.

**Flashback. **

**July 9****th****, 1995, Gilbert, Iowa**.

Kate Austen twiddled her thumb as her 11th grade English teacher rambled on about the benefits great literature provide young people. She flips through a fashion magazine until she sees a hand waving at her from outside.

She smiles, knowing it's her best friend Naomi and quickly jumps into action. Load moans come from her desk as she leans over, clutching her stomach, letting out such horrifying screams that all the kids around her were sure she was going go die.

Her teacher, Miss Jankovic, rushed to her aide, searching for the cause of such horrifying pain. After getting no reply from the anguished young girl, she asked if she needed to see a nurse.

In a brave attempt to stay in class, Kate vowed she could make it, but soon keeled over yet again, this time falling to floor in a heap. This time Miss Jankovic ordered her to the infirmary, helping the young girl up and walking her to the door, where Kate promised she could make it on her own from there.

Stumbling and moaning, she made it down the hall and looked back at her teacher as she turned the corner. She then began walking towards the nurse's office. Once out of sight, she burst into laughter and rushed out the side exit where Naomi was waiting.

"I wasn't sure you'd be able to make it." Naomi asked, holding a bottle of whiskey in her hand, "Wanna go finish this at my place?"

"I don't know." Kate pondered, looking over and sniffing the bottle, "What's it taste like?"

"Who cares how it tastes, it's how it makes you feel that matters and I can tell you this, it makes you feel amazing." Naomi had a drink and then held the bottle out for Kate, "Come on, don't be a chicken, drink up."

Kate grabbed the bottle and took a big swig, her face contorting into a thousand different faces as she swallowed it down, "OMG, that's awful."

Naomi laughed and put her arm around Kate, "I know, but you won't even remember that in an hour. Let's go. My mom's gone for the day so I have the house all to myself. You know what means."

Smiling and taking Naomi's hand, the two girls rushed off the school property and through the local mall until finally coming to Naomi's house.

It was a fair size house; her father was a government contractor and her mother a bank manager, so they lived in an upper class area of the small town. Being the only child, Naomi was spoiled from the day she was born, learning at a very young age how to get anything she wanted.

Once inside, they quickly went upstairs to Naomi's bedroom, where Naomi turned on her CD player, "Have another drink. I'm already starting to feel good, but I want you to feel this good to."

In spite of her dislike for the taste, Kate took another long drink and quickly handed the bottle back to Naomi, "This better be worth it or I'm going to be sick."

"Oh you'll probably be sick anyway, but the idea is to feel really good and have some fun until you do." Naomi said with a playful grin, leaning over and kissing Kate on the lips, "So let's have some fun."

"I like it when you do that." Kate said, enjoying her memories of kissing such soft full lips many times before, "Are we going to do more than kiss this time, because I'm ready."

Naomi could hardly believe her ears, "I would love to, but before we do that, I have something else in mind that will be almost as fun."

"What else?"

Reaching under her bed, Naomi grabbed a small knapsack and put it down between her and Kate, "Have you ever shoplifted anything before? You know, anything, like candy or chips or whatever?"

"No, but I've sure been tempted, why?"

"Well, a friend of showed me how to break into Larson's Grocery store, down by the gas station and I thought we could go get some things." Naomi said in a whisper, always cautious when she was doing something she shouldn't, "I know that the store is closed now because they are away at some funeral or something, so we don't have to hurry."

"I don't know, what do you want from there?"

"I don't care." Naomi explained with a shrug and a smile, "I just want to see if I can do this. I saw him do it and it looked so easy and I really want to do it myself, but I don't want to do it alone, so are you in?"

"I guess so." Kate said, hardly as enthusiastic as Naomi would've liked. 

"You don't have to, but I'm going now, so it's up to you." Naomi grabbed the knapsack and walked towards her bedroom door, turning just enough to see what Kate would do.

Just as she had hoped, Kate got up and followed her out the door.

After running up and down the aisles of the mid sized store, Naomi began looking around for something worth stealing. She tried some of the fruit, then moved to the candy bar section, before moving over to the pharmacy.

The door to the office was locked, but Naomi always came prepared. She pulled out a small device and within a minute had the door unlocked, however the sound of an alarm going off changed things in a hurry.

Both girls panicked as the noise became unbearable. They rushed to the front door only to find it had closed and locked itself. They ran from one end to the other, looking for another way in or out, before turning towards the back where the inventory was kept.

They spotted a large door where the trucks were loaded and unloaded, searching around for a way to open it. Kate found a remote control and began pushing every button she could fine, when suddenly a side door opened and both girls walked slowly towards it.

It didn't look like the other rooms in the store; it was made of a bright silvery metal, with a black and white striped panel on the floor. Naomi knelt down and lifted up the panel as Kate looked on, holding onto Naomi's shirt as she pulled the panel to the side.

There was a staircase leading down, but Kate didn't want to go any further, "This is too weird for me. We don't know what's down there. We need to get out of here before we get caught."

"No, whatever is down here is important. I can feel it. This is not part of the store, it's some secret hideaway or something." Naomi said, turning and giving Kate her best puppy dog look, "Come on, we are already here, don't leave me all alone."

"Fine." Kate said, against her better judgment, following her friend down the long, long staircase.

When they finally reached the bottom, it was pitch black and they could barely see which way to move. Kate held onto Naomi as tightly as she could, hoping that she'd find a way out like every other time they got into a bind.

Slowly, but surely, they made their way through a very narrow hallway, coming across another silver room, with yet another panel on the floor.

"What now? What if this goes on forever?" Kate asked, clearly not wanting to play around in the dark anymore."

"No, I think this is the end." Naomi said confidently, smiling and reassuring Kate that it would be okay, "Whatever is in here is our way out."

Kate sighed, stepping back as Naomi opened the panel, "Just be careful okay."

Naomi winked at Kate as she took a look down below, "It looks like some kind of mine. There's cars filled with some kind of material and they are all on this long track. I see someone down there. OMG, it's Ed Larson, the owner of the store. He's talking to some guy in a suit. Oh god, the guy has a gun. He's pointing it at Mr. Larson."

"Get out of there now. Close it. Close it." Kate yelled, reaching out and grabbing Naomi by the waist.

"Kate, they can't see me. It's okay. I need to find out what's going on. I think the man put his gun away, because he's walking away with Mr. Larson." Naomi lifted her head up and motioned for Kate to follow and then she began climbing down a much shorter stairwell.

Once they had reached the bottom, they followed the two men from a distance until they turned down a corridor up ahead. Staying as close as they could without being seen, they continued to follow the men to a large military warehouse, filled with everything under the sun, from assault rifles, ammunition, uniforms and thousands of other items.

Once inside, the two men stopped beside a large tank, with Mr. Larson taking a thick envelope from the man and stuffing it into his jacket pocket. He then shook the man's hand and walked out the main door.

The man then turned around, stared directly at Kate and Naomi and waved at them, "You two girls really shouldn't be here."

Naomi took Kate's hand and led her towards the tall man, "We got trapped in Mr. Larson's store and didn't know how to get out."

"Hmm, that seems unlikely, since his store was locked, so I'm guessing you two thought you could break in and rob the poor man?"

"No, we didn't…"

The man crouched down and glared at Naomi, "Before you finish that sentence, you need to know that it's not wise to lie to me. So think long and hard before you spin another tale."

Kate didn't waste any time in confessing for the two of them, "Okay, we did break in, but we never took anything. Honest."

"That's better." The man said, smiling at the scared young teens, "Ever hear the saying, 'The truth shall set you free', well, it's true and it has. You can go now. Just walk out that door and I'm sure you'll find your way back home."

Kate started to walk out, but couldn't help but have another look around the massive warehouse, "What is this place?"

"You sure are a curious young thing aren't ya?" The man said, a slight smile crossing his sturdy jaw, "How would you two like to do something for your country?"

"Like what?" Kate asked, excited about the offer.

"Well, we have this program, where young people, such as yourselves, help make a difference in the world." He shifted in his seat as he continued his pitch, "I'm sure you've heard of the FBI, CIA and maybe even Interpol, well, I run a similar organization and we use young people to help prevent crime in schools and other places young people frequent."

Naomi pulled Kate back, much less comfortable around the man, "Kate, I think we need to leave."

"Why?" Kate asked, unsure why Naomi was being so rude, "It sounds like fun. We could do all the things we always wanted to do. I bet we could travel and maybe even carry a gun."

"I said we have to go." Naomi reiterated, taking Kate's hand and pulling her away from the man, "I don't trust him. We don't even know his name."

"Oh, how rude of me." The man said, getting to his feet, "My name is John Locke. Here's my card, call me if you change your mind."

** End of Flashback**.

** End of Chapter 2**.

**Comments and feedback are always welcome and appreciated. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3.**

**The Island**.

Kate worked her way around the large crater, avoiding the other men patrolling the area, while making her way towards the helicopter at the top of the hill. She spotted a man talking on a cell phone just to the left of the helicopter and knew he was just what she was looking for. 

She snuck around to the far side of the hill, crawled on her stomach up to the helicopter and stopped when she heard voices.

"Mr Jallow, we've lost contact with Harper." A tall, slender black man said.

"Are you sure it's not just a mechanical problem?" The older man asked, removing her sunglasses as he sighed.

"Yes, we've lost sight of him on the radar as well." The man said, playing with the buttons on his control panel, "He either lost or removed his tracking device. I've sent Thompson and Bertrand to do a search, but it's possible he's been compromised."

A more serious look crossed the man's face, "You know what to do if he's breached security, Lansing." 

"Should we abandon the mission for now?" Lansing replied

"Not yet." Jallow said, grabbing his cell phone and moving away from his associate, "I need to make a call, but until we find Harper we aren't going anywhere."

"Yes sir."

Kate stayed in hiding as Jallow made his call.

"Bernard, we have a situation here. I need to know what you want me to do about it."

"What is it?" Bernard asked abruptly, smiling at the 6 other men in the room.

"One of the team is missing and is possibly compromised." Jallow explained, happy to voice his displeasure, "We were told the island was secure and deserted, so if that information is incorrect, then our deal is about to change."

Bernard flicked a switch on the table and watched a large video screen pop up in the middle of the table, showing an aerial view of the island, "Don't start playing your games Jallow, just do your job. You know what's at stake."

"We didn't come here to fight a battle, so if the rules change, so does the deal. Now who's on this island?"

"It's possible the two women are there, but they are not military trained, so if you can't handle them, then I need to find new help." Bernard said sarcastically, drawing a ton of laughs from the men around the table.

"My information differs from yours." Jallow said, pulling up his file of Kate on his laptop, "Kate Austen killed a man, eluded capture from the FBI, spent countless months on this island with known military personnel such as Sayid Jarrah and John Locke, as well as covert operatives Jin-Soo Kwon and Sun-Hwa Kwon, while also spending time with noted scam artist Sawyer Ford. She may not be trained by professionals, but I don't underestimate anyone with her resume."

Growing tired of arguing, Bernard sat back and became a bit more blunt, "Look, just find the box and you won't have to deal with the scary lady."

"Not amusing." Jallow growled, "The point is you lied. You knew Kate was here and you chose to leave that out. I just don't know why."

"If you must know, I was hoping you'd eliminate her for free, but since you only kill for money, I'll toss in another 100K for her head on a platter."

"What about her girlfriend, Claire? Does she die to?"

"No, I want her and that child brought back." Bernard yelled as he got to his feet, "Under no circumstances shall the child be harmed. I would prefer Claire not be harmed, but if she resists, you may use whatever force is needed."

"If that's all, I will get back to work."

"That's all if you deliver. If not, well you know the risks." Bernard explained with a smile, turning off his cell phone and addressing the room, "We are getting closer to our goal. If the chest is there we will be on our way to achieving something nobody thought was possible. We will get the child and with the ingredients in the chest we will finally have the most amazing genetic creation the world has ever seen."

Kate waited for Jallow to put his cell phone back into his jacket before sneaking up behind him, grabbing his left arm, lifting it up high on his back and sliding her very sharp knife up to his throat, "You just agreed to kill me for a 100K, I'm not sure what to do about that."

"I never asked to become involved in your business, but it comes with the job." Jallow mumbled, "If you plan on killing me I suggest you do it now, because I won't hesitate to kill you if you don't."

Kate nodded, "I haven't ruled it out, but I like to believe there's always another solution to every problem. Since you love money so much, what if I offered you 200K to leave this island?"

"It's an interesting offer, but I believe Bernard Nadler is a much more serious threat than you. While you may be able to kill me now, there is no doubt I'd be dead if I betrayed Bernard, so I guess my answer is no."

"Stop being stupid and think about think this." Kate said, trying to shake some sense into the man, "Death is not all it's cracked up to be. You must have things you want to do with your life. Don't be so willing to die for someone who doesn't care about you one bit. All I want is the chest and to be left alone. I'm willing to pay you and your men to disappear. Please."

"Make it 300K, plus 50K for each of my men."

"That's 500K." Kate said with a gasp, "I'll need this equipment left here, but you have a deal."

"How are you going to pay me? Is there an ATM machine on the island?" Jallow asked with a wry smile.

"Actually, I can do even better than that." Kate smiled, dropping back behind Jallow and pulling out her cell phone, "One last thing." She said just as she pushed a needle into his shoulder, causing him to stutter, then stumble and then fall to the ground at Kate's feet.

She removed his weapon, his wallet and his cell phone and then moved on to the next target, systematically incapacitating them, removing their weapons, cell phones and cash before heading back to the hatch.

**Kobuk Valley National Park.  
Onion Portage Archaeological Site, Alaska.**

John Locke drove to the edge of the of the Ahteut camp, marked off limits because of its historical importance. Ignoring all signs to stop, John parked his jeep and stepped out into the cool air, admiring the amazing view of the prehistoric house pits below, something that had always fascinated him.

After disabling the few wandering park rangers, John climbed down a long embankment well over 100 feet below, took out a hand held saw and began cutting through a section of rock after scanning it with his through-wall vision camera.

He made a 6 inch cut to begin with, he then made another 6 inch cut 12 inches below the first one, then continued to make numerous cuts in the rock until he was able to pull out three blocks he'd created. He removed each one carefully, setting them inside his back pack, covering each one with a protective seal, before climbing back up to the top of the site.

Back in his jeep, he calmly left the site and began his long trip back to Anchorage where he could finally see the results of his decade long experiment.

Three black vans passed John on the highway, going past him in the opposite direction. They stayed on course, all moving at the exact speed, never once changing their formation as they made their way up to the Ahteut camp.

6 men got out of the three vehicles, each wearing an identical outfit, black suit, black sunglasses and carrying numerous weapons on them. One man spotted tracks on the ground, pointing for the leader of the group to come have a look.

"Are they fresh?"

"Yes, they were likely made within a couple hours."

"I want everyone to spread out. We don't know if Locke is still here, but your orders are to take him alive if you spot him. We are looking for his latest research. Unfortunately we have no idea where he kept it or what it might look like. Just look for any type of electronical device, computer, radio, books, anything that stands out in this place."

"Yes sir." The second in command said as he motioned for his men to move out.

The first man pulled out his cell phone, "We are at the site, but Locke may have beaten us to his research."

"I don't like hearing hypothetical's." Bernard said with an annoyed growl, "Get me some facts and get them now. If he gets a hold of that research we will lose the only bargaining chip we have left for him. If his research turns out to be what we think it is, he will possess the most important piece of information the world has ever known."

"I understand. We will do everything we can to find him and the research. How long would you like us to stay here? My trackers said the tracks here are new, so if he left, there's a good chance he's heading to Anchorage and then back to the LA where his lab is."

"I want a very thorough search of that area. We know he put something there and we narrowed it down to that site, so have half your team stay and look and the other half get back on the road see if you can track him down before he gets on a plane."

"Will do sir." The man nodded, closing his cell phone and summoning is men around him. After telling them the new plan, two vans pulled took off, leaving only 2 men to search the entire area of the site.

**The Hatch.**

Kate reached the hatch; positive she wasn't followed and began to tap on it in a methodical pattern, stopping and starting numerous times until she heard the door begin to open and saw Claire smiling back at her.

She followed Kate down the stairs until they were on the main floor of the hatch, "We're no longer safe here. Bernard knows we're here, so it's only a matter of time before he finds us."

"How could he find out? We've only been here a couple weeks. Nobody knew we were here."

"Jack did, Sun did, Locke did, Sayid did, do I need to go on?" Kate said, becoming more sarcastic after each name she mentioned.

Shaking her head at Kate's list, "I meant nobody we didn't trust knew."

"I don't trust any of them. How can we?" Kate asked, unable to control her frustration, "Everyone has their own agenda and I don't know who I can count on, besides you."

"Kate, we have to trust someone or we'll never get out of here alive."

"I hate this." Kate yelled, moving into the communications room, "Well, we either call Jack, Sayid or Locke, or maybe Sun, but I still don't know who she's working for."

"Jack would never do anything to hurt us." Claire said, quick to stand up for Jack, "No matter what you think you saw that night, Jack is not working for Bernard. That's ridiculous."

"Nothing is ridiculous anymore." Kate said, quick to counter Claire's defense of her half-brother.

Claire shrugged at Kate, "What do you want to do then?"

"In spite of Locke's strange actions at times, I trust him."

"Really? Even though he shot your childhood friend Naomi?"

Kate's face went white and her eyes grew wide, something that ruined all hope of denying, "How did you find about that?"

"So it's true?" Claire yelled, angered that Jack was right, "You knew her and lied about it?"

"I know this must look bad, but it's not what you think." Kate said, trying her best to remain calm, "This is really not the time for this, but I've been keeping another secret from you as well. It has nothing to do with us, but it's going to make you very mad that's putting it mildly."

"Well, we aren't going anywhere until you tell me what's going on."

"I didn't mean to keep this from you, but from the moment I met you I've wanted to protect you. As we became friends and things started to move from friendship to love, I was caught in the middle of what I should do and wanting to keep you safe."

"That's a pretty riddle, now tell me what this about and speak English the non vague type please."

Kate smiled at Claire's demand, "Okay, I did know Naomi and I also knew one other person on the plane, John Locke. We were on the plane for the same reason and that reason is you."

Dead silence filled the room as Claire began processing what she had just heard about the woman she was in love with.

"Please hear me out, because what's going on right now is bigger than anything you could possibly imagine." Kate said, trying to put her arms on Claire's shoulders, only to see her pull away in a flash, "I know you are furious and any other time I'd give you the space you need, but we don't have that luxury right now. We have about two hours until all those men start to wake up again, so please let's get our stuff and get to the other side of the island. By the time we get there John should have a boat ready for us."

"How do you know John and why am I the reason you were on the plane?"

"I don't have time to get into that. I'll tell you on the trip to the rendezvous point. Okay?" Kate asked, hoping she could pacify Claire long enough to get them to safety. As Claire folded her arms cross her chest and glared back at her, she knew she had to tell her something, "Fine, it has to do with Aaron and your father's research"

"My baby? You want my baby?" Claire said, backing away from Kate as if she were a killer, "This is going to end right now. You tell me what the hell is going on or we are over." Claire pulled out a gun and aimed it at her lover, "I'm sorry, but you cannot mention my baby and ask me to just shut up and do as you say."

"Claire, put the gun away." Kate said, taking a step towards the angry blonde, "I assure you it wasn't anything sinister, it was the opposite. There is no way I can explain all this in a few minutes. It's a long, complicated story that spans centuries and continents and Aaron is now the most sought after child in the world, but I can keep him safe."

"Stop avoiding the truth. Just tell me something I can understand."

Again Kate tried to move closer, only to hear the gun go off and feel a bullet literally graze her ear, "Are you insane? You could've killed me?"

Smiling proudly as she continued to point the gun at her lover, "No Kate, that's one thing you don't know about me, I know how to handle a gun, so that was a warning shot, if you don't start talking you will leave me no choice. I will not let you take my child."

"You are wasting time Claire. I know you are angry and that's fine, but you need to look at me." Kate grabbed Claire by the shoulders and stared right into her eyes, "Look at me right now, look into my eyes and decide if you love me and if you trust me. In spite of everything you just heard, you have to know that I would never, ever let anything happen to you or Aaron. Please, this is a matter of life and death." Kate yelled, moving right up to Claire, "Look at me!"

Claire took the time to stare into Kate's eyes and looked into her soul and as angry as she was, she lowered her weapon and handed it to Kate, "Do not make me regret this."

Kate wrapped her arms around Claire and held her tight, "I love you. I do and that will never change. I'm so sorry about all the lies. I hated it. I can't tell you how much I hated lying to you, but I promise I will tell you everything as soon as we are off this island. I love you. Please hold onto that."

"I don't know what to believe anymore, but I don't seem to have a choice. I believe you don't want to physically hurt me or Aaron, but you've already hurt me more than you'll ever know with your lies." Claire said, holding her head down and turning away from Kate, "I'll get Aaron ready."

Kate wanted to make things right, but she knew she had a phone call to make. She grabbed her cell phone and dialled the number from memory.

"Jupiter Helicopter Tours. How many I help you?" A young woman said from a small office.

"I need a chopper at the island ASAP. Locke okayed it, the password is Aaron."

"I'll have one sent to you immediately Miss Austen."

Kate closed her cell and put her hands over her face, wondering if she just destroyed the best thing that had ever happened to her.

**Interpol Deep Undercover Office in Los Angeles**, CA.

Sun-Hwa Kwon stood in front of 3-member panel, filling them in on her time on the island. When she was finished, she sat down and waited for her next assignment.

A tall, grey haired man stood up, walked over to her and handed her a large top secret folder, "This is a continuation of your last mission. With Jin-Soon presumed dead, you will be working solo on this project. As per instructions, you will have minimal contact with the agency until your mission is complete."

Sun nodded her agreement and flipped open the folder. Three pictures were placed in a row on the first page, Kate Austen, John Locke and Shannon Rutherford.

"I must ask why Shannon is on this list. She's dead. She is no longer a threat to anyone."

"That is where you are wrong Sun." A slender, middle aged woman with long blonde hair said, flicking a switch by her chair, which pulled up a picture on a big screen in the middle of the room, "As you can see Shannon Rutherford is alive and well. We lost track of her here in Los Angeles. She has made contact with Bernard Nagler, Sayid Jarrah and her former boss, John Locke. We have yet to ascertain where her true loyalties lie, but if her past is any indication, it's with the highest bidder, which would be Bernard. Your mission is simple. Get into touch with Kate and John and find out what they've been doing. If John succeeds in deciphering Christian Shephard's research and discovers Aaron's true identity, there's no telling what he will do. As for Shannon, your mission is simple, find and eliminate her. She is shoot to kill. We don't believe she is privy to any of the details, she's just in this for money."

"You know that Kate and John know who I am. That will make it much harder to gain their trust. John in fact trusts nobody, while Kate is almost as suspicious, perhaps even moreso since she's become involved with Claire. I will do what I can, but I wonder what your motives are for sending me on this mission when my cover has been exposed."

The final member of the panel stood up, the many shiny medals on his uniform sparkling in the light, "We believe that Kate trusts you and John trusts Kate as much as he trusts anyone. We need you to form a friendship with these two, so we have a chance to get that research before he sells it to the highest bidder."

"With all do respect Commander Sato; I don't believe John would do that. Money is not what motivates him. I believe he loves his country, so I feel your concerns are misplaced."

"This is not for you to decide." Commander Sato said firmly, "We believe Locke will resurface here in LA as well. We have both his labs under surveillance and hope to have him in custody in the next 24 hours. Kate disappeared with Claire a little over two weeks ago. All attempts to find her have failed. We have a sent a team to the island and you can coordinate things with them once you leave here. One last thing, we know you had an intimate relationship with Shannon, if that gets in the way of your mission, you will be terminated. That is all Sun."

Sun bowed to the members of the panel, turned around and walked out of the room. She took a deep breath and made her way down the long circular corridor, turning to her left and taking the stairs down to the underground parking facility.

She walked briskly towards her car, a black Porsche GT2, slipped inside, pushed a button on the side panel, putting up an electromagnetic field, allowing her security as she made a call, "They know you're alive. What the hell were you thinking leaving the apartment?"

"What? I went out one time." Shannon said, apparently oblivious to the trouble she'd created, "I was tired of sitting in that place. It's so boring in there. You couldn't have found a place with a pool?"

"We talked about this many times." Sun said, continuously frustrated by Shannon's actions, "I don't think I could've been more clear about how dangerous it was for you and for me, if you were seen alive. Let's not kid ourselves, I also know you had contact with Bernard and Sayid, so you can stop playing dumb, it doesn't work with me, remember?"

"Fine." Shannon said as she stretched out her long legs on the satin sheets of her bed, "Bernard made me an offer on the island. I was just checking to see if I could make a little money. Sayid still has a crush on me, but unless he's hiding it, he's not exactly rolling in the greenbacks. As for John, you knew I had to contact him. He got me off the island. He's still mad about me being on the plane to begin with. Anyway, when are you going to be home, I miss you. I have needs you know, I can't stay here much longer or I'm going to go insane."

"I need to set up a new place for you." Sun searched through her purse until she found her list of contacts, "That's going to take a couple hours, but you need to stay put until I call you back. This is very important. You are on the shoot to kill list. Do you have any idea what that means? Any agent can kill you without even blinking, all because you had to get hooked up with Bernard Nagler. You need to get into one of those disguises I showed up. I want long black hair, sunglasses, long coat and I don't want you talking to anyone. I'll call you with the details soon."

"When is this going to be over? I can't live like this. I thought we would be able to have some fun once you got off the island. This is not what I bargained for."

"Shannon, I'm trying to keep you alive. If you leave on your own you are going to die. Until we can prove to my bosses that you really aren't a threat, you have to do what I say. I'm going now. Please be ready when I call." Sun flipped her cell phone off and leaned back in her seat, wondering how she ever got involved with Shannon Rutherford.

**End of Chapter 3**.

**Comments and feedback are always welcome and appreciated.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4.**

**The Island**.

Kate stood at the edge of the beach, looking out into the ocean, hoping to spot the helicopter, not just so they'd be off the island, but to avoid dealing with Claire's silent treatment any longer.

"Well, I'm sure it's going to be here soon. Are you okay? Anything you want to say to me?" Kate asked with a slight smile.

"I think it's best if I say very little right now, because most of things I'm thinking and feeling are only 4 letters long and I'm not sure you want to hear a bunch of those, again."

"If it helps speed up the healing process, by all means, let me have it." Kate said with a cute grin.

"Why, it's not going to change any of the lies you told me or didn't tell me, however you want to look at it." Claire said, her anger growing with each word, "Now you tell me my little boy is wanted by Bernard because of experiments my dad was working on? I just don't understand any of this." 

"Once we get in touch with John, I can explain it all." Kate added, hating that she had to lie to Claire, "Please just trust me. I know you might not want to right now, but once this is all out you will see that I had no choice."

"Oh don't give me that crap." Claire said, trying to keep her voice down as she looked at Aaron sleeping so peacefully beside her, "That's a lie. You could've told me, you chose not to. It's not even complicated. I can see my dad being secretive, he always was and I can even see Locke, because that's who he is, but you? No, I never expected it from you, but you made sure of that. You were always so open with me weren't you? I thought I knew you. Now I wonder just who I fell in love. I think it was island Kate, not the new Kate, assuming that's even your name."

"Don't hold back, let me know how you really feel." Kate said, not expecting so much anger from Claire, "I probably deserve all this, but I do love you and that will never change. There's so much going on that I wish I could tell you, but until you are safe, until Aaron is safe, I can't. I know you hate me for this, but I know you'll see why once you talk to John."

"I need you to tell me something about all this, show me that you aren't keeping everything from me." Claire said, taking a deep breath before walking up and taking Kate's hands in hers, "Please, if you can't do this then I'm not going to talk to John or you ever again."

"Claire." Kate yelled, grabbing her by the arm, "Okay, I met John when I was a teenager. He ran this organization that recruited young people to help deal with youth violence. Both Naomi and I joined his organization when we were 16, 17. We took some training, learned basic self defense techniques, all kinds of mental training all so we could be sent undercover into local gangs or known drug dealers or any type of organized crime that targeted kids our age."

"You were some kind of agent?" Claire asked, her tone considerably less argumentative then a mere few minutes earlier.

"Not officially." Kate said, enjoying the brief moment of peace, seizing the moment to reach out to Claire, "You see to begin with John suggested this idea to the CIA and the FBI, but they turned him down, so he set it up on his own. Eventually, many years later, he got us involved in the CIA, or a sub section of it really. We received much more training, intense physical training, firearms training, and even had to learn how to withstand torture techniques in case we were captured."

"I can't believe this. You seem so normal though." Claire said, looking Kate over from head to toe, "So were you working when you boarded our flight?"

"Yes." Kate nodded after a couple small pauses, "But you were not the target. Everything that happened between us was real. Never was I sent to make contact with you."

"I want to believe that so much, but this is all so hard to digest." Claire said, still not willing to get close to Kate, "What was your job when you got on the plane?"

Kate hesitated again, which caused Claire to give her a seriously dirty look, so she took a couple steps towards her, grabbed her hands and took a deep breath, "I should not be telling you this, but you mean more to me than anything, so here goes. John and I were tracking Bernard Nagler, who is not a dentist by the way; he's a well known, yet reclusive crime lord. Unlike most powerful criminals, his fortune was not made from drugs or the usual mob type crimes, his weakness is art and government secrets."

"He seemed harmless."

"He wasn't the only person on the island with the same agenda. I don't want to freak out or make you regret any of the friendships you might've made here, but some of them were after you and your child."

"Oh god, who? Not Charlie? Who? Don't say Jack either."

"No, they were not involved." Kate said, reassuring Claire as quickly as possible, "Shannon was on the plane to eventually become your friend, gain your trust and then steal your baby."

"No, she was always nice to me." Claire said, shaking her in disbelief, "How can any this be true? Who else was in on this?"

"This is why I didn't want to say anything, because it's so complicated and there's so many people involved. Different people, different groups, but they all want the same thing, Aaron."

"Then it's time you explained how my little boy could be so important to everyone."

Kate managed to pause just long enough, as the helicopter flew towards them, allowing her a brief reprieve. When the chopper landed, Kate was quick to get Claire and Aaron in first, making sure they were secure before she climbed in.

Once they were all ready, the pilot lifted the chopper off the ground and headed back to the mainland. It was a 20 minute flight and much to Kate's delight not a word was spoken and the only noise was that of the engine and the constant humming of the helicopter blades.

They landed on a piece of land barely visible from the air, with nothing but thick forest all around it, making the landing more than a little difficult. Luckily, they had a former Air Force pilot flying the chopper and he put it down without so much as a bump.

After helping the two women and Aaron off the chopper, he wished them luck and flew his chopper back to the airport.

Kate had a quick look around, spotting a narrow path to the west, "Okay, we will be on the ground for a couple hours, did you want me to take Aaron?"

"No. I'm fine." Claire said, showing that she wasn't quite finished being upset, "Just lead and I'll follow, what else do I do."

"This is going to be fun trip." Kate said with a grin before beginning the long walk through the forest.

**Mohannad Oil.**

**Downtown LA.  
**

Sayid stood outside Rahim Muhannad's office, patiently waiting for him to return with the information he needed. He had known Rahim for over a decade, serving with him when they were both working their way up the ranks of the Iraqi Republican Guard. While Rahim was always more ambitious, willing to do anything needed to advance his career, he had a soft spot for Sayid after Sayid saved his life after a missile hit their base, killing all but the two of them.

Some say it was luck that Sayid had stepped out of the barracks at the moment the missile hit, others questioned his loyalty, but when he rushed back inside the burning building to rescue Rahim, who was trapped under a large metal pillar, Rahim never forgot it, and tried his best to help Sayid whenever he needed it.

Rahim stepped out of his office, looked around the room and handed Sayid a single sheet of paper, "This is only part of the file we have on Nadia's movements after she faked her own death."

Taking the paper from Rahim, Sayid quickly read over the document, his eyes bulging in and out of his head as he read through to the end, "How do you know so much about her?"

"I knew you cared about her and I'd heard rumblings that she wasn't who she said was, so I did a little digging and as you can see she is not your beloved Nadia."

After reading through the first few paragraphs of the document, Sayid looked up in disbelief, "This can't be. She knew everything about Nadia, about the times we shared together as children. How is the possible?"

"When you bring me John Locke, I will let you have the rest of the file, which I might add is over 250 pages long." Rahim said, walking back into his office, "There's one other thing that might help speed your efforts to bring me Locke, along with the information I have on this woman pretending to be Nadia, I also know where the real Nadia is. She is alive, but she's being help captive by a formidable enemy."

"You have a deal." Sayid nodded, holding out his hand for Rahim, "Under one condition."

"What would that be?"

"John Locke is a friend, so whatever you need him for, I cannot let you kill him, so if that's part of your plan, I won't be part of it, not even for this."

Rahim sat down in his big leather chair, sipping a glass of wine as he studied Sayid closely, "You have still not explained why you have such loyalty to this man? I've seen your file, I've seen his, there is no record of you even knowing the man before that fateful flight, so what it is I'm missing?"

"The only thing you need to know is that Locke can't be killed. If you choose to ignore this, our friendship will not save you from a most unpleasant death."

"If all goes well John Locke should live to be a very old and miserable man."

"Good, that's how it should be." Sayid said, drinking down the last of his wine, setting the glass on the desk and getting to his feet, "I'll call you within 24 hours. You can talk to John personally and if he agrees, we have a deal."

"Oh he'll agree." Rahim said with an assured smile.

"Well, it was good seeing you again. Take care my friend." Sayid said, shaking Rahim's hand before he walked out the door. Once on the elevator, he got out his cell phone, waiting until he hit the ground floor before making his call, "It's all been arranged. Call Rahim in about 22 hours and you can take things from there. Are Kate and Claire still on the island?"

"No, they are on their way to Bali and will take a flight to LA via Honolulu." John said calmly as he stood in line for the security check at the airport, "Once they are in LA, I want you to take them underground. Use the Karbash facility just outside of Las Vegas. Aaron must be protected at all costs."

"I need to ask John, what are you intentions where that child is concerned? Are you going to use him to further your experiments?"

"Sayid!" John said loudly, "Aaron is the experiment. We have no idea how he is going to react to what they did to him, to what Christian did to him. All I know is the prophecy I've been following my whole life confirms that a child, unlike any other, will change the course of history as we know it. Not in a good way. If we can't find a way to undo what has been done to Aaron, I fear we will have no choice but to eliminate him before he does far more harm than we can ever imagine."

"There has to be another way. He's just a child."

"Just make sure they are safe." John said rather abruptly, not wanting to think of the worst case scenario, "I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that child leads a nice long normal life."

Accepting John's word, Sayid moved on to other things, "I also got information that Charlotte is back with Christian. Last report I got they were heading to Antarctic. I thought we ruled that out as a possible destination."

John turned to see four men watching him from a distance, "I have some unwanted guests here. I should be fine, I'm in the middle of airport security, but if something goes wrong, you know who to contact."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that, because I don't trust her one bit." Sayid said, happily voicing is displeasure at John's request.

"I have to go. I'll be in touch." John closed his cell phone, slipped it into his pocket and waited for his turn in line. 

**Penthouse Suite of the Regent Beverly Wilshire.**

Shannon Rutherford smiled as she looked over her brand new apartment, courtesy of her lover and could not stop jumping up and down at how amazing it was. Not only did it have a build in sauna, it had a swimming pool on the roof, a walk in closet that she could get lost in and best of all, it cost her nothing.

As a young woman, Shannon grew up struggling to make ends meat, resorting to crime as a way of securing what she'd always dreamed of, a life of leisure. She met Sun in Paris where she was running what she thought was a very boring con, but what she didn't know was the man she was conning, Jean Mechaud, was a very high ranking member of the Marcantoni family, a well known and very dangerous crime syndicate.

Sun had been trailing Mechaud for over two years, finally infiltrating his inner circle, gaining his trust, all the while compiling a case against him. After Mechaud began seeing Shannon, Sun found herself attracted to the beautiful blonde, something that both scared and excited her.

One afternoon, Jean asked Sun to take Shannon shopping, wanting her to find the perfect dress for a huge party he was throwing in her honor. Sun happily agreed, taking Shannon on a long trip through the most expensive clothing boutiques Paris had to offer.

The two women bonded instantly, with Shannon feeling Sun's attraction just as quickly. Near the end of the trip, Shannon decided to try on a couple very sexy dresses, requesting Sun's help repeatedly as she slipped on one skimpy dress after another. Finally, as Shannon slipped out of the last dress from the rack, Sun could take it no longer. She grabbed the tall blonde and kissed her hard and deep, pushing her up against the wall of the small dressing room.

Shannon kissed her back, enjoying the softness of her lips and passion in her kiss. They kissed for a very long time, before Sun stepped back, shocked by her behaviour, "I'm so sorry. I don't know what got into me. Please forgive me. Please don't tell Jean, he'll have me killed."

Sensing she'd just found an ally or at the very least, someone to use, Shannon agreed to Sun's request. Over time, they began spending all their free time together, with Shannon initiating the next kiss, a long passionate kiss on the banks of the French Riviera

They made love for the first time at the top of the Eiffel Tower, with Shannon pushed up against the wax figure of Gustave, her long sexy legs spread wide, with Sun on her knees making Shannon scream like she'd never screamed before.

Once Shannon had declared her love for Sun, they came up with a plan to fake her death so she could move back to LA and await Sun's arrival. With Jean Mechaud in a state of mourning, Sun moved in, got the information she needed and helped put him behind bars for the rest of his life.

After Sun had completed her assignment she took some time off to spend with Shannon, thinking she had found the love of her life. Soon, her job called and she was pressed into action, this time posing as the wife of another agent, Jin-Soo, which led them to the doomed flight.

Not wanting to be left behind, Shannon also boarded the flight with her step brother Boone, much to the chagrin of Sun. Neither has much memory of how they came to be on the island, but once there, many things began to change between the two women.

Shannon continued to look around the stunning suite, ending up in the huge bedroom where she flew onto the giant bed, rolling onto her back, smiling at the mirror above. She pulled out her cell phone, doing exactly what Sun told her not to.

"Bernard here. What do you want Shannon?" He said, as disinterested in her voice as could be.

"I thought you'd want to know that I've got a new place, but Sun knows we talked. I don't know how, but she does. I just want to know if we still have a deal."

"You silly girl, you have used up what little worth you had. I don't care what happens to you anymore. Now if you call me again I will have you killed for annoying me. If your girlfriend keeps snooping into my business, she's going to end up dead to."

"No, you can't kill Sun." Shannon said, feeling a strange emotion for the first time, fear, but not for herself, this was for Sun, "You know this is her job, why don't you just disappear and she'll never find you."

"Don't you worry your pretty little head about me, you need to worry about Sun. If you can't find a way to side track her and get her off my case, you must know what's going to happen."

"I'll try, but she does what she wants. She's so focused when she's working. I hate that part about her, but I don't think I can stop her. Whatever she's working on right now is big. I mean huge, because I've never seen her so intent on what she's doing."

"Well, she's right about that. She is involved in something big now, but she's not going to ruin it. Not now. Not after I've spend so many years waiting for this moment." Bernard added with an annoyed sneer, "I don't know why I'm talking to you. You helped on the island, by betraying Sun, but that's over. You were paid well for your information, now go away."

After the line went dead, Shannon began to panic, wondering if her betrayal would end in Sun's death or her own or both, none of which appealed to her.

**End of Chapter 4**.

**Comments and feedback are always welcome and appreciated.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5.**

**Small air base 2.5 miles east of Bali.**

Kate stopped moving as she came across a long metal fence with a locked gate in front of them. It was about 9 feet high, surrounding a small, yet brightly colored building about 20 feet away. It looked like an old hangar from an airport with numerous antennas poking out from the roof. On the outside were two small airplanes, one a small twin engine Cessna and the other a much larger 747.

Claire walked up to Kate, took a look at the situation and shook her head, "So, this was your big plan? Have us walk for miles to an enclosed airfield?"

"It wasn't supposed have a fence around it." Kate said, looking into her purse for a piece of paper, "John said we'd just walk in and talk to Freddy and he'd fly us to Los Angeles." 

"Well, we can't sit here forever." Claire said, looking around the dry, all but deserted piece of land, "Aaron needs sleep, food, water, you know the kinds of things all children need."

Ignoring Claire's words, Kate began reading the note John had sent her. About halfway through her eyes lit up and that adorable smile returned her face, "I figured it out. There's a key over by that tree there."

Running towards the a colorful group of fruit trees just ahead of her, Kate got down on her hands and knees, pulled out a large, sharp knife and began digging in the ground. After a few minutes she hit something metal with her knife and quickly pulled it back, slid it safely into her boot and cleared away the rest of the dirt with her hands, finally able to pull up a small metal box from the ground.

A smile covered her pretty face as she pulled out a black key from the box. She rushed over to the gate, slid it in the slot and let out a sigh of relief as she pushed the gate open wide, "Let's go."

Claire followed Kate through the gate and the two women walked up to the small office, peaked inside, but kept moving as it appeared empty. They walked towards the two mid size hangars on the far left, entering the first one through a rusty door that shifted back and forth, only one hinge still in place as it dangled against the metal frame of the wall.

Kate led the way, moving slowly and cautiously until they came upon the body of a man on the floor. She knelt down, checked for a pulse, but shook her head, causing Claire to turn away.

"It's Freddy Malacky. He's a friend of John's and the contact I was supposed to meet here." Kate said as she got to her feet and walked over to Claire, "We need to get out of here now."

"What's going on?" Claire asked, holding Aaron close, fearing the worst.

"We need to find a plane. We need to get back to LA." Kate said as she moved slowly around the large, dark hangar, "He's been dead for a while, so I'm hoping whoever did this is long gone, but it means someone is getting close and I need to get you both out of here now."

"Isn't he the pilot?"

Nodding as she continued to look around the creepy building, "Yes, but I can fly if I have to. I have some training."

"Some training?" Claire asked rather loudly, "You expect me to put Aaron on a plane with you because you have some training? I think you better come up with a better plan."

Kate smiled at Claire's blunt rejection of her piloting skills, "Since I don't have time to be offended, I'll see if we can find a professionally trained pilot around here. I'm sure there must be at least a dozen wandering the barren wasteland that we are in the middle of."

Claire held back her smile, "Very funny, but you didn't sound very convincing when you were talking about your training. Unless it's the only option left, I'm going to keep looking for another one."

"Fair enough, but as you can see, there isn't another person around here, not a mechanic, not a secretary, not a passenger, it's empty." Kate added, moving up in front of Claire, smiling as she ran her hand over Aaron's cute little head, "We can check the rest of this hangar and try the next one, but I promise if I have to fly us out of here, I will get us there safely.

Smiling at Kate's passionate promise, Claire felt a sense of relief fill her body, "Okay, I believe you. I know you wouldn't take us up in a plane unless you were sure you could get us home safe."

"Good." Kate said with a happy nod just as she pulled out her cell phone, "I need to call John. The more I think about it, the more terrified I get at flying. He'll know someone who can help. He always does."

John picked up his cell phone, barely taking his eyes off his computer screen as he did, "Locke here."

"I've got a situation here. Freddy's been killed. I'd say over 12 hours ago, but he was our pilot. Can you get someone else here, because I don't feel very confident putting Claire and Aaron's life on the line with my limited piloting experience."

"It'll take some time, but I'll try and have someone there within 24 hours. Are you in the west hangar now?"

"Yes, why?"

"Okay, follow the north wall until you get to stairs." John said as he clicked on a few links on his desktop and pulled up a blueprint of the airfield, "About halfway up you'll notice a small hole in the left wall. It's very small, so you need to really be looking for it. If you push against it in just the right spot a panel will open up. On the panel you'll find the up/down buttons. Push up, that will bring a small elevator up to where you are, get in, hit the down button and wait until you are at the bottom. Don't send the elevator up until I contact you later. You'll be in a small, but secure shelter; there should be some dry food and water somewhere."

"Who knew I was coming here? I don't believe Freddy's death was just a coincidence."

"More than likely it was Bernard, but he's not the only one after Aaron, so that's why you need to get down to that shelter now."

"Fine, but we need to get back home. Aaron is running out of food and it's just no life for a young boy."

"I'll make sure you are all safe." John said, turning rapidly at the sound of glass breaking outside his room, "I need to go. I'll call you later."

1  
John grabbed his gun from the table, got up and walked slowly towards the door to his room. He listened closely, but heard nothing so he moved into the hallway, gun in front of him as he moved closer to the living room.

Another noise came from the kitchen and John moved very quietly through the living room, saw the light on in kitchen and peaked every so slightly around the corner. He let out a disgusted sigh and walked into the kitchen, "What the hell are you doing here?"

Ben lifts his head up from his plate, chewing down his freshly cooked bacon and eggs and greets John with a nod, "These eggs are delicious. Do you buy them fresh or get them from the market?"

John sat down across from his sometime friend and sometime enemy, grabbed a fork and had a taste himself, "Ah, it's good that you are enjoying them, but if you don't start talking soon it's going to be your last meal."

"If you wanted to kill me I'd be dead." Ben said as he took another bite, "We need to talk about Aaron and what you plan to do with him."

"We have talked and disagree on the fundamental issue of what's best for the child and for everyone else."

"I'm not suggesting any harm come to the child, but you and I both know that if any of that prophecy is true, he could destroy the world as we know it."

John sighed at Ben's comments, "I don't believe in the prophecy, but at the same time I can't ignore the dangers involved, mostly because of everything involved is still an unknown. I am taking the appropriate actions to protect the child as well as Clair and Kate, but I will do what's needed if the situation arises."

"Is that slang for saying you'll kill the child if it shows some signs of being different than others?" Ben asked calmly as she took a sip of his orange juice.

"No, it would take something beyond the realm of normal to make me take any such action, but as I see it, there's no proof that this child will be any different from any other."

Ben stood up and stared at John, "You are familiar with Christian's earlier experiments, so why would you discount those results?"

"They were lab animals, rats, mice, monkey's and the sort, besides, the only evidence I've seen that anything out of the ordinary took place was a report that one of his monkey's displayed some type of extraordinary strength, but I wasn't able to confirm this personally."

"Well, I've recently gained access to some of Christian's video experiments and I think it's time you had a look at what may be in store for young Aaron."

"What are you talking about? There were no videos." John said, once again questioning Ben's information, "I checked into that and he never kept any. He was insanely secretive and a video would be the last thing he'd ever use."

"Like any scientist, he's also very thorough and in order to fully capture his experiments he did in fact video tape them." Ben said with a proud smile, "I have 34 hours worth of experiments on tape, but I will save you watching them all and let you watch 3 tapes that caught my attention. I think once you see these tapes you will have a different viewpoint as to what to do with that child."

"Unlike you, I take no pleasure in killing." John said, refusing to take the tapes from Ben, "Why don't you just tell me what's on the tapes."

"Some things you really need to see yourself, but I can say that much like the story you heard of the monkey displaying amazing strength, there are a couple more horrifying examples of what happens to these animals when injected with Christian's mystery ingredient." Ben began to positively glow as he recounted what he'd seen, "On one tape, Christian had one of his associates attempt to feed a small mouse. He slid a piece of cheese into the tiny cage and if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it. The mouse literally ripped the cage open, ripped the man's hand off and then proceeded to chew him to death. Christian was in a secure room when this happened and he hit some button and a gas filled the room and the mouse died, but not before brutally murdering a full grown man in seconds."

Not much could shock John, but this was one of those times. He remained silent for the longest time, before turning his attention to Ben, "You believe these tapes are real and not manipulated in any way?"

"I've had them checked and rechecked and they are real and this did happen. There are two other instances like this on tape. One involving a monkey, which again killed a woman in seconds and the final instance, was much more gruesome. It involved a small bird, a hummingbird, which was somewhere between 4 and 8 inches long, but it also killed, but not just one person, it killed 3 lab technicians in less than 5 minutes. Having one of the worlds fastest metabolisms, it consumed almost all of the three people it killed as if they were bird seed."

"This is not possible." John said, shaking his head, searching for some type of scientific answer to what he'd just heard, "I need to see the tapes. How could these people die and nobody know about it?"

"Well, from what I've come to learn about Dr. Shephard, he used numerous homeless people as his assistants, people who had no family, no life and had no reason to betray him. He gave them shelter, food, money and in return they were his secure way of testing his and if they happen to die, oh well, nobody would ever know."

John nodded, "Okay, what else do you know about all this? Who are you working for?"

Ben stared at John with a look of disappointment, "I'm here, I'm telling you because for some strange reason I feel you may be able to stop this from happening to Claire's child."

"We know that these deaths were rare and that most of his experiments or subjects showed no signs of change, so that's what I'm hoping is the case with Aaron, that he is spared this and can live a long happy life."

"You hope?" Ben questioned in a highly sarcastic manner, "What happens if he is affected by whatever happened to those animals and one day he kills his mother or Kate or thousands of people? Look at what much smaller animals were able to do? Multiply that by a full grown human male and you have a recipe for mass destruction."

"If you are truly here to help, I need you to take a sample with you to a lab in Russia. I'm testing what I believe Christian is using on those animals and what he injected Aaron with, but I need a second opinion and I trust this lab. It's run by a man named Evgeni Malatov. Are you interested?"

"I have some business overseas anyway, so yes, I can drop off your sample for you. Care to tell me what this is all about?"

"Obviously it's not human. I honestly don't know what it is." John nodded, holding up a small secure glass container, holding a tiny bone inside, "Only explanation is another life form. If that is the case, we have no idea what mixing their DNA with animals or humans could do. If it turns animals into killing machines, it will be the most sought after items the world has ever seen."

**Bernard Nagler's Office**.

Sun knew she was risking her life and her job going to see Bernard, but she knew he was only one who could give Shannon the freedom she needed. After being escorted through one room after another, Sun was shown into a very large circular room, where Bernard sat smiling back at her from his seat at the head of the table.

"I need to talk to you about Shannon." Sun said as she slowly moved towards Bernard.

"Stop right there." Bernard said, motioning for his guards to block Sun's path, "I don't trust you Sun and I think it's best you do your talking from a distance."

"Fine." Sun smiled, glaring at the 4 men aiming rifles at her head, before turning her attention back to Bernard, "I want you to let it be known that Shannon is not a threat to anyone. I want it to get back to my bosses so that Shannon and I can live the life we have planned."

"Why should I help you?" Bernard asked as sipped his glass of champagne, "You've been spending your time trying to put me behind bars. I hardly see how this could benefit me."

"I will back off from my investigation." Sun said, her sincerity clear in the desperation in her voice, "I will come up empty and tell my superiors that you seem to be clean. This will give you some time to either disappear for good or create an even stronger alibi for some of your more deadly crimes."

"You are willing to all that for this dumb blonde?" Bernard questioned, dumbfounded by Sun's feelings for Shannon. "She's pretty, but come on Sun, I expected more from you. Is the sex really that good? You know she isn't capable of love? You know she will betray you the first time someone offers her something better. So why do all this for someone who clearly doesn't deserve it?"

"That's not for you to decide. I love her and she loves me." Sun said, trying to ignore the pesky facts Bernard was making, "Nobody's perfect and we all have our flaws, but I trust Shannon and I know we can make this work, but I need to get out this line of work and you can help make that happen."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, I want a new identity for me and Shannon and I want a place in Barbados, somewhere by the water and a healthy chunk of cash to allow us to live a lavish lifestyle until we are old and gray."

"Well, you sure don't ask for much for someone who is in no position to bargain."

"Do you really think I'd come here without backup?" Sun laughed, snapping her fingers as she proceeded to immobilize the four men surrounding her. After picking up and dismantling their rifles, Sun turned to the entrance and watched with a smile as Jack, Sayid and Juliet walked into the room.

"What is this?" Bernard yelled, standing up from his soft cushioned chair, looking for some way out.

"I gave you a chance to help me, but you refused, so now we are going to do things another way." Sun moved up to Bernard, grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back to her three allies, "Take him. Do what you want with him. If you are going to kill him, don't leave any evidence lying around."

"Kill me? Wait." Bernard yelled again, finally coming to grips with the seriousness of his situation, "I can help all of you. I have money. I have resources. You name it, I can do it. Jack, if you want to be Chief of Staff of any hospital in the country, I can make it happen. Sayid, I know where your beloved Nadia is and your old friend is lying to you when he says he can help find her. Juliet, I know you want to find your sister and her son and I know where they are. I can help all of you."

Jack, Sayid and Juliet all share looks of curiosity at Bernard's bold statements, something that did not sit well with Sun at all. She stepped in front of Jack, snapping her fingers in front of his face, "Snap out of it. Don't listen to him. Whatever he might be able to do for you will come at a cost none of you want to pay. You know that the first chance he gets he will kill you all, so I suggest you do what you came here to do and if you need help with any of the things he mentioned, I will help you and I'll do it because you're my friends."

"No, don't listen to her. She can't help you." Bernard said, desperation filling his voice as he moved pleaded his case, "Only I know the whereabouts of Nadia, Rachel and her little boy Julien. Sun has no power to make you chief of staff either and contrary to her warnings, I have no reason to kill any of you, or you'd be dead now. I have no quarrels with you. So think long and hard about this. I'm not your enemy."

Jack walked up to Bernard, looked down at the man he used to call a friend and sighed, "You are the enemy. You are after Aaron. You don't care if you have to kill Claire or Kate to get him either. We are here to make sure you never hurt that little boy."

"You have it all wrong. You have no idea what is inside that little boy. John hasn't told you has he?" Bernard asked, knowing the answer was no, "Of course not. John is no different than I am. He wants to make sure that little boy doesn't turn into some type of killing machine. Only I have the resources to make sure that doesn't happen."

Juliet looked at Jack, who seemed as shocked as she was about Bernard's grim story, "What's he talking about?"

Jack turned to look at Sayid and then over at Sun who didn't look the least bit surprised or shocked, "You both know something about this? You better start talking before I get very angry."

Sayid pulled Jack and Juliet out of the room, "I don't know what Sun knows, I haven't been in contact with her since we got off the island, but what I know is that Aaron was injected with some type of foreign DNA while he was still a fetus and there is a chance he could develop some very deadly habits."

"What foreign DNA are you talking about? And who did this to him?" Jack asked in a very demanding tone.

"Your father did." Sayid said bluntly, not having time to sugar coat it, "As for what DNA is inside Aaron, we still don't know. It's not human and that's why this is a very unsettling situation."

"How could my father have access to some type of foreign DNA and why would he put it in Claire's child? Why?"

"Only he can answer that, but best guess is he had access to her."

"I think he's telling the truth Jack." Juliet said, causing Jack to toss his hands in the air in disbelief, "Back when I was working with Ben on the fertility project, I remember asking why he was so interested in this and he never gave me a direct answer. Anyway, one day I heard him talking to a doctor and he was telling him that he couldn't help him but was very interested in being part of his experiments. I'm positive he was talking to your father."

Jack scoffed at the idea, "Okay, Christian was a drunk and a horrible father, but he was not a Dr. Frankenstein. I would've known about these so called experiments."

"It's true." Sayid said, dispelling any hope Jack had that it was all a misunderstanding.

"I need to find Claire and Kate." Jack said, switching gears in a flash, "If you know where they are Sayid, you better tell me."

"That's not my call." Sayid said, turning away from Jack, "Just know that they are safe and no harm will come to either of them."

"What about Aaron? Is he safe?"

"I want nothing more than for Aaron to be safe and I hope that's how things turn out."

"You hope?" Jack said with a demented laugh, "That's just great. I guess if Aaron exhibits some different behaviour you'll just kill him? Is that it?"

"It's not that simple." Sayid snapped, hating to think about the worst case scenario, "There's so much you don't know about. If Aaron exhibits any type of different behaviour, chances are Kate and Claire will end up dead."

"You aren't making any sense."

Sayid pulled out his cell, clicked on John's name and handed the phone to Jack, "He can answer your questions better than I can."

**End of Chapter 5**.

**Comments and feedback are always welcome and appreciated.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6.**

**Underground Shelter in Southeast Bali**.

Claire gave Aaron a kiss and then got up and closed the door behind her, making a beeline for Kate who was sitting on a small yet comfortable brown leather sofa, "It's time you told me the whole story about what's going on with Aaron."

Kate let out a sigh, but knew she could avoid it no longer, "Okay, but just remember, I'm just the messenger here. I don't know the whole story, but I'll tell you everything I know."

"Good, that's all I want from you, is the truth." Claire said, much more calm than before..

"Okay, but you are not going to like it one bit."

"I don't like it now, because I don't know anything, so it can't be any worse."

"I think it can, but here goes." Kate said with another sigh, "Your father is not just a surgeon. He got into medicine with a more idealistic view of things. He wanted to save the world, cure the world, help the world, but he soon discovered that without money you can't do any of that. So he got into surgery to help pay for his experiments."

"Well, none of that sounds very ominous."

"Give it time." Kate said with a slight grin, "Anyway, he became interested in genetic research and specifically how DNA from different species reacted when combined. He ran simple experiments on animals, mammals, insects of all types, changing the DNA of these creatures by adding DNA of a totally different species. Mostly the results were inconclusive, but there were more than enough individual cases where highly bizarre and unexplained things happened to some of these creatures. These things varied from how they looked to how they acted, how they moved, the sounds they made and even the physical abilities changed."

"How was he able to do such things? Wouldn't that be illegal?"

"Probably, but your father made friends with many high profile people when he was chief of staff and they helped finance his strange experiments." Kate got up and grabbed her purse, pulling open an envelope and handing it to Claire, "This is the only information I have seen that shows some of the changes these creatures went through during these experiments. As you can see some are really very troubling to look at. Some don't even look remotely like they should."

Claire flipped through the 20 or so pictures, letting out gasp after gasp and covering her eyes as she looked at what were some mutated versions of your typical every day animal, "How does any of this connect to Aaron?"

"Before I answer that let me just continue on with the rest of this story." Kate said, not wanting to get sidetracked, "Your father was not content to use just animal DNA for his research, he wanted to use DNA that was truly different. His first thought was DNA from humans from centuries ago, so he became interested in archaeological sites. He gained access to some of the most prominent discoveries of the last 100 years. Along the way, he not only observed the findings, he began gathering DNA from the bones of these thousand year old humans, all because he felt their DNA was more pure than that of today's humans."

"That's just sick. You're saying he combined human DNA with animal DNA? "

"Yes, but it doesn't stop there." Kate said, getting up so she could keep moving as she continued with the story, "Along the way he came across a site that was different from all the others. There were remains that could not be identified by anyone as being human or animal. While they looked similar to humans they were not human remains. It was then that Christian began to compile DNA from as many different remains as he could. While there is no way to know who the remains belong to, it's widely speculated that they are from another life form. Aliens if you will."

"OMG." Claire said as she jumped to her feet, her eyes lighting up like the streets of Vegas, "Are you saying what I think you're saying? Did my father put that DNA into Aaron?"

Kate tried to console her lover, "I'm sorry Claire, but we think he did."

"I can't believe he would do that. He had to know that something horrible could happen to Aaron. Only a monster would do this to their own flesh and blood." Claire became more animated as things began to sink in, "This can't be happening. It can't be."

"Claire, I hate to make this worse, but from what John has told me, he has already used this DNA on animals and there have been some very serious side effects and that's why everyone wants Aaron." Kate explained, carefully watching Claire's reactions, "Not to protect him, but to study him, because if he exhibits some of the traits that these animals have exhibited, he could become a very serious threat to everyone, including us."

"No. Aaron would never hurt me." Claire shook her head vehemently at the thought, "I don't care what's inside him, he's still my little boy and he would never hurt his mother."

"I hope you're right, but John thinks it's best that we put Aaron in a safe place where he can be monitored."

"What? Monitored?" Claire asked, staring at Kate like she was the enemy, "Like some lab rat? Are you insane? Look at him. Go in the room and look at him? Does he not look like the cutest little boy you've ever seen? Has he done anything but act like a young boy should?"

"You're right, he's been an absolute angel and I'm hoping that he stays that way for the rest of his life."

"But?" Claire questioned, knowing Kate wasn't quite finished.

"You know I love Aaron and I would never, ever let anything bad happen to him, but I think that we need to take this threat seriously." Kate said, trying her best to sound positive, "John told me he was working with some medical lab on developing a cure for this. From what he told me Christian began working on a cure the moment he noticed these changes, but after he was presumed dead, John had a team continue that research."

"How can you cure DNA?"

Kate shrugged, "I don't know, but the point is there is hope that even if there's a small chance Aaron possesses some of these violent tendencies that they could negate or control them somehow."

"That's not good enough." Claire snapped, moving back into the room where Aaron was sleeping, "What happens if Aaron does something, somehow displays a feat of strength? What will John do then? I don't even want to imagine what he'd do, because I think I know and I won't let that happen."

"I would not let John harm him, no matter what." Kate said, wrapping her arms around Claire, "We'd find another way to deal with this, but you have to know that I would protect Aaron with my life."

Claire let out a sigh and put her arms around Kate and hugged her close, "I know you would and I'm sorry if I forgot that for a moment. I trust you a 100% and I know we'll find a way to deal with whatever comes along."

"We will. I promise you that." Kate agreed, lifting Claire's head up just enough so she could kiss her soft lips. They continued to kiss passionately as Kate pushed Claire up against the wall, her hands sliding up and down her body, stopping to cup her perky breasts.

Soft moans escaped Claire's mouth as she felt Kate's hands caressing her breasts. She slid her hands down over Kate's tight blue jeans, squeezing her firm ass cheeks and pulling her in even tighter.

With their moans growing louder and their hands becoming even more aggressive, Kate pulled Claire out of the room, shut the door behind them and led her back to the sofa. She lowered Claire onto her back and pushed her legs apart, smiling as she crawled on top of her and kissed her once again.

As they kissed, for a moment, they forgot their troubles, the danger and the distrust and enjoyed being so close again, something that was slowly slipping away. It was as if they'd found each other for the first time, the looks, the touches, the kisses, all so filled with passion, desire and love.

Claire looked up at her beautiful lover, her hands caressing Kate's soft radiant face, "Why can't we stay like this forever?"

"We can." Kate said with a nod, leaning down and kissing the pretty blonde, "One way or another, we are going to have the life we've always dreamed about. Please just trust me and it will all work out."

"I do trust you." Claire said with a breathless whisper, "I just want it to be over."

Before Kate could respond, they heard a loud explosion and the room shook enough to cause Kate to roll off Claire and fall beside her. She quickly got to her feet and rushed over to the main door, but it was no longer there, it was on the ground, shattered in a thousand different pieces.

Kate rushed back to Claire, grabbed her hand and led her back to where Aaron was sleeping, "Stay in here. Do not come out until I tell you to."

"What's going on?"

"Someone is here." Kate said and she looked down at Aaron sleeping peacefully and then back up at Claire's terrified face, "I love you. Don't ever forget that. I have to go now, but I will be back." She kissed Claire long and deep, then pushed her back into the room and locked the door as she left. 

Claire began screaming and pounding at the door, "Kate. Kate." But to no avail, nothing she said was getting through.

**Karbash Research Facility, 5.8 miles NW of Las Vegas**.

John sifted through the hundreds of pages of information on his desk, trying to make heads or tails out of the countless parade of numbers and symbols, while checking the clock every few minutes, knowing that time was running out.

A knock at his door caught his attention, since nobody else knew he was there. He pulled out his gun, walked over to the door, pulled it open and stood behind it, waiting for whoever it was to step inside.

Once he had the target in his sights, he stepped forward and put the gun against the back of the woman's head, "You shouldn't be here. You never got the hang of following orders and one day that's going to get you killed."

Shannon turned and smiled at John, "I've done pretty good so far, but this time I'm not here for selfish reasons, I'm here because of Sun."

"What about her?"

"I think she's in danger." Shannon pulled out a small tape from her purse and handed it to John, "I've kept in touch with Bernard since I got off the island and I think I overstayed my welcome because I think I might've pushed him one too many times and now he wants both me and Sun dead."

"Just tell me what's on the tape." John ordered as he moved back to his desk and sat down, "How did you ever get a bug on his phone?"

"He doesn't think much of me, he treats me like a bimbo and that's what I want and that allowed me to plant this a week ago." Shannon followed John back to his desk and hopped up on it, her long legs dangling over the desk, covered by the shortest of skirts, "Anyway, after my last conversation with him I knew he was at the end of his rope, so I monitored his last two phone calls closely. He talked to Christian first, who is apparently within striking distance of Kate and then he talked to a man I don't know, someone named Rahim and he told him that Christian could no longer be trusted and for him to do whatever it took to bring Kate, Claire and Aaron back to him."

"That's not good news." John said, stating the obvious, "I hoped we'd get to Kate first, but if not I was comfortable knowing Christian might get to them ahead of us, because he would not harm Claire and I don't think he would harm Kate either. But this changes things. It means Bernard is feeling some heat and he's upping the stakes. Rahim is not a mercenary, but he does have a lengthy military background, so he's not afraid to get his hands dirty, if that's what it takes."

John's cell phone began to ring and he pulled it out, "Locke here?"

"John, it's Sun. We have Bernard in custody, but he's not talking right now. I think we both know he's not working alone. Have you had any contact with Kate recently?"

Looking up at Shannon, John turned away from the pretty blonde and stepped outside his lab, "Kate is in a shelter right now, but I have my people on the way to pick her and bring them back to them back here."

"I'm going through his files right now and he's had a lot of contact with Christian and a man named Rahim Mohannad and our old friend Ben Linus." Sun sat down at Bernard's desk and flipped through some files on his computer, smiling as she came across a picture of her and Shannon kissing on the balcony of their last apartment and under the picture was a comment, 'Shannon can't be trusted, she's in love with Sun and won't betray her."

"I contacted Rahim a while ago but he never returned my call." John said as he watched Shannon rifling through the papers on his desk, "My thinking is he no longer needs me for whatever he has planned."

Sun flipped through Rahim's file until she came across something that made her stand up in her chair, "John, where are Kate and Claire?"

"They are in a safe place, why?"

"I have an email from Bernard to Rahim that basically authorizes him to use whatever force is necessary to remove Christian from the field and it lists Bali as Christian's last location. It goes on to add that Kate and Claire are also expendable if they do not cooperate." Sun made a copy of the email and sent it to John, "This was sent this morning, so if they are in Bali, they are in very serious danger."

John rushed back into his room, sat down at his desk and quickly pulled up the email Sun had sent him. After reading it with his own eyes he slammed his hand on his desk, "I have nobody left in Bali. They were supposed to be catching a plane back here. Do you have anyone you can send there?"

"I can take a flight out anytime." Sun said, searching around the rest of Bernard's large office, "I'll have someone track Rahim's credit cards and see if we can find out when he left and how much time we have before he gets there? How secure are they?"

"If they stay inside it would take a nuclear sized blast to get them out and I don't think anyone wants to risk Aaron's life, so hopefully they'll stay put."

After watching and listening to the conversation, Shannon stared at John until he acknowledged her, "What's going on?"

John smiled at the pretty blonde, "Nothing that concerns you, so run along now."

"Are you talking to Sun?"

"We are in the middle of a crisis here Shannon, so please stay out of the way."

"John, I can help." Shannon said, almost pleading with John to listen to her.

John looked over at the attractive blonde, studied the serious look on her face and sighed, "I'll bite, how can you help?"

"I know some people in the Denpasar police department and if you want I can have them sent to wherever Kate and Claire are. It'll be faster than waiting for Sun to catch a plane there."

"You're just full of surprises." John said with a smile as he put his cell phone back to his mouth, "Sun, your girlfriend is here and she's trying to tell me that she knows some people in Denpasar, is that true?"

"Yes, it probably is." Sun said with a proud smile, "We spent a week there once and Shannon was quite popular with the police after helping catch a small time crook. I believe she still emails the police chief. I can't believe I didn't think of that before."

"I trust you Sun, so if you think this will work I'll do it."

"Shannon wouldn't do anything to put Kate, Claire or Aaron in danger. She's still friends with those two."

"Okay, I'd like it if you could go there to. If there's any problems I think you could handle them."

"I will do my best, but what are you going to do about Aaron? I know this is a horrible situation to be in, but do you think he's out of danger yet? Didn't you say that the test animals displayed these dangerous feats of strength within minutes or days of being injected with the DNA?"

"Yes, Christian admits he hasn't done enough long term testing to ensure that these traits couldn't happen later on in life. Not to mention he's never tested it on a human before so it's just one big unknown after another. The last thing I want to do is harm that child and I will hope that he lives a long healthy life and we never have to deal the alternative."

"As I've told you before, I have access to some very secure facilities that would be perfect for keeping Aaron safe and in a controlled environment. They would also allow Kate and Claire to be with him the whole time." Sun paused for a moment, waiting for John to reply, but when he didn't she continued, "It's not perfect, but considering the potential destruction he could cause, it might be the only way to keep all three of them together."

"When Claire and Kate return I'll go over all their options with them and if that's something they want to do then I'll be in touch." 

"Okay then, can I talk to Shannon for a moment."

John held out his phone for Shannon who happily grabbed it and walked across the room, "Sun, I'm sorry I didn't stay in the apartment, but I got so scared that I might've put you in danger I had to do something."

"Bernard isn't a threat to you or anyone any longer, but I want you to stay with John until we bring Kate, Claire and her little boy home. I'll feel better knowing your safe, okay? No more leaving. Promise me?"

"Okay, I'll call my friends in Denpasar and have them check on Kate and Claire. I want you to be careful okay, whoever this Rahim is he sounds pretty dangerous. Please don't die on me."

Sun smiled, "I'm not going to die, but I do need to go, but I love you and I can't wait to take you away for a very long vacation once this is all over."

"Oh god, I can't wait for that either. Hurry home." Shannon said with a happy smile, flicking the phone off as she tossed it to John, "I'll make the call and you can tell my contact what you want them to do."

John got to his feet, grabbed his cell phone and walked slowly around his desk, studying Shannon carefully the whole time, "What's in it for you?"

"Nothing." Shannon shrugged nonchalantly, "I said I'd help so I will."

"Something doesn't fit." John said, looking down at Shannon's legs, "Who are you really working for?" he reached down and ripped a cord from her thigh, pushing her skirt all the way up to her waist where he pulled off a small transmitter from her inner thigh, "Just when I think there's hope for you, you show me why I could never trust you."

Shannon shook her head as John grabbed the device and began looking it over, "It's not what you think." She pushed her skirt down and walked towards John, "This is not for you, okay? I put this on for Bernard, I was trying to get some information on him so he'd leave Sun and I alone."

Laughing at Shannon's explanation, he walked around to his desk and sat down in front of the pretty blonde. He put the device in front of him and pulled another device from his desk onto the table and slid the small transmitter inside, looking up at Shannon as he put his finger on the switch, "One more chance to tell the truth, because if this device doesn't have Bernard on it, you are in a world of trouble."

Nervously watching as John's finger hovered over the device, Shannon turned around and let out a piercing scream. Once she was done, she let out a deep breath and sat down in front of him again, "Okay fine, I came here to find out what you knew about Kate and Claire. I just want you to know something before this all blows up in my face, I do love Sun and when you hear what I'm about to tell you I know you won't believe it, but I do. I've made some really bad decisions in my life, but she was the only good one I made. I know she won't understand and I don't blame her, but I never want to hurt her."

"Just get to the part where you tell me who you're working for."

"You were always so impatient; it's why I could never work for you." Shannon snapped. She opened her purse slowly and pulled out a picture and slid it in front of John.

He picked it up, looked at it and tossed it back towards Shannon, "I should've known. Just when did you meet Charlotte? We arranged for your death and removal from the island long before she arrived. Did you know her before you got on flight 815?"

"Yes." Shannon said without hesitation, "I met her before I met Sun and I knew what she'd done to Aaron and that's when things fell apart between us. You may not believe it, but there are some things I won't be part of and what she did to that little boy was one of them."

"Then explain the wire? Charlotte's dead, so who are you working for now?"

"She's not dead!"

John shook his head, "Yes she is. We got word that Christian killed her, but we don't know why."

"That's bad information, because she's very much alive." Shannon said with a slight smile, happy to say one thing John didn't already know, "Christian has much more diabolical plans for her death. He had her taken away to some facility in Oregon, but she escaped. She contacted me a couple days ago and I had no choice but to agree to what she wanted."

John looked at Shannon in disbelief, "Had no choice? That's your excuse? There's always a choice, some just aren't very pleasant, but it seems you take the easy way out every time."

Shaking her head violently, Shannon couldn't disagree fast enough, "That's not true. She threatened Sun and I couldn't let anything happen to her."

"Where is she now?"

Shannon shook her head, "I don't know, she said she was on her way to LA, but that's all I know. I swear. We were to meet tonight at a small diner just outside the city limits and I would fill her in on what I found out."

"You are keeping that meeting, only I'm coming with you." John reached into his desk, pulled out a large handgun and slipped it into the back of his pants, "Before we go I need you to tell me who Charlotte is working for?"

"I can't, she'll kill Sun."

"Well, if you don't tell me I'll kill you and you won't have to worry about Charlotte anymore. So what's it going to be?" John said, pointing the gun at Shannon's pretty head, "More choices to make, isn't that fun?"

"John, you're not a killer and it won't help if you know, but fine she's working with Rahim." Shannon said, not flinching for a moment, "They were going to take out Bernard but since Sun has done that for them, they can continue on with their plan."

"Which is?"

"They want Aaron and they don't care one bit about Claire or Kate, in fact Charlotte suggested killing them the moment they found them. They want Aaron to turn into a monster. If he doesn't, they plan on injecting him with more DNA until he does. They believe that once they discover the correct amount, type and dosage of DNA to use, they will have the most sought after item in the free world."

John scoffed at Shannon's explanation, "It's useless if you can't control the subject, Christian has learned that the hard way."

"Yes, but Charlotte believes she has a way to manipulate the cerebral cortex in a way that she can maintain control over the subject even when it begins to display the super strength. I don't know all the details, I'm not a scientist, but I know enough to know that she is determined to make this happen and I don't think she cares if Aaron lives or dies as long as she gets what she wants."

"You say you were in love with this woman?" John asked, staring at Shannon as if she were insane.

Shannon smiled back at him, "No, we just had fun together."

"Just get moving, we need to be at the meeting."

"What about the phone call to Denpasar?"

"I don't think you can be trusted at this point in time, so I'm going to put my money on Sun finding a way to save Kate, Claire and Aaron, now get moving." 

**End of Chapter 6**.

**Comments and feedback are always welcome and appreciated.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**.

**Mort's Diner 5.6 miles NW of the Los Angles.**

Charlotte paid for her drink and walked back to a table in the back of the half full diner. She sat down, opened up the paper and smiled as she saw an envelope inside it. She ripped it open and pulled out a small key and slid it into her purse.

Before she could get up from the table she felt a hand on her shoulder, "Why couldn't you leave things alone?"

Charlotte spun around to see Daniel standing beside her, "What are you doing here?"

"Trying to keep you from making a mistake you'll regret."

"We've talked about this, you don't have to agree with my decisions, but please don't get in the way or… just don't get in the way." Charlotte ordered.

"Or what? You'll kill me?" Daniel asked as she slid in beside the sexy redhead, "You already tried that remember? That's why I walk with a limp now. I'm just lucky you aren't a very good shot."

"Daniel, that was business." Charlotte said firmly before turning her attention to Daniel's leg, "Oh, and I didn't try and kill you, that was a warning, because I'm a very good shot."

Daniel chuckled, "I suppose that doesn't surprise me, nothing I find out about you does anymore."

"What are you doing here? I need to go. I have things to do."

"Things? Is that what you call it now?" Daniel asked, still flabbergasted at how cold Charlotte could be, "Killing people, stealing their children, putting them through torturous experiments so you can make money off some warped drug?"

"You aren't exactly a saint you know." Charlotte happily replied, "You went to the island with me, remember? You didn't mind taking Rahim's money then. So what is it, you had a thing for Kate or what, you discovered a conscience somewhere in that thick head of yours?"

"Maybe I did." Daniel nodded, "Maybe seeing you in action was a bit more than I bargained for. I'm just not going to let you do this. I don't know Kate or Claire or that little boy all that well, but I know they don't deserve what you have planned for them. So, you can come with me and I'll let you start a new life somewhere else or you can resist and then you'll get to see what I'm capable of."

"Oh, you sound so sexy when you're acting tough." Charlotte said with a sexy smile, "Can't we work something out? I know you want me and I know I've put you off for a long time, but maybe I was wrong about you. Why don't you let me do all the things to you that you've only dreamed about?"

"You're a little late for that, I'm long past my infatuation with you." Daniel said, pushing a .38 calibre into her side, "Give me your purse and let's start walking out the door."

"You don't want to do this. Rahim is not someone you mess with. He won't just kill you, he will make you wish you were dead for years. I've seen some of things he does to people and it's the only time in my life I've ever felt ill to my stomach." Charlotte said, showing a brief moment of humanity while still working her magic on Daniel, "Please don't do this. I don't want to see you dead. I still consider you my friend."

"Well, I don't consider you mine, now let's go."

"I have a meeting here tonight with Shannon. I might be able to save them." Charlotte stopped moving, "I know where they are. Rahim is on his way to bring Aaron back. Let me do this. Let me try and change what I've done."

"Why should I trust you?" Daniel asked with a hint of smile crossing his now cleanly shaven face, "You're only trying to buy time until you can make a move on me. You have no sense of right or wrong, that's why you're in this mess."

"Stop judging me." Charlotte screamed at the top of her lungs, drawing the attention of everyone in the small diner, "You will never hit me again. If you follow me I'll call the police." She walked briskly past Daniel, stopped at the door and turned with a look of fear and terror on her face, "Someone please keep this rapist here until I can get away. I can't deal with him right now."

A handful of burly men from different tables got up and began walking towards Daniel and Charlotte blew him a kiss and took off towards her car. 

**Underground Shelter in Southeast Bali.**

Kate grabbed her gun from her purse, walked slowly back towards the main door, but pulled back when she heard voices.

"Are they in there?" A male voice yelled from outside the room.

"We're still looking." A tall armed man replied as he led a handful of men through towards Kate.

With very little time to think and even less firepower at her disposal, Kate backed up and hid behind the sofa, pulled out her cell phone and pushed the 1 key and waited.

"Kate?" John said, getting to his feet at the sound of the urgency in her voice, "I told you not to call me."

"I had no choice." Kate said, peaking out at the entrance to the room, "We've been compromised. Claire and Aaron are safe, but I might not be so lucky. If you have anyone that can help, now's a good time to get them over here."

"I'll do what I can, but I need to know who's there." John said, sensing the urgency in Kate's voice, "It's not Bernard. I have it on good authority that he's incapacitated, so you need to find out who else is after that child."

Kate watched the men enter the room and quickly closed her cell. She slid it into her bra and slowly got to her feet with her hands above her head, "Don't shoot. I'm unarmed."

Two men grabbed her and led her out of the room. They pulled her out of the shelter completely and stopped in front of a man sitting a top a large army fighting vehicle.

"You are a very hard woman to track down Miss Austen." Christian said with a smile, sliding down off the hood of the vehicle and stopping in front of Kate, "Where is my daughter and my grandson?"

"They are safe." Kate said calmly, looking around at the swarm of armed men and military vehicles surrounding her, "I knew you'd find me, and I'm glad you did, because now you can tell me what the hell is going on?"

Christian smiled and walked around the small room, "That's really not your concern. While I appreciate you keeping my daughter safe from the unsavoury people who are after her, you can rest assured that I will not harm her. I have her best interests at heart."

"Excuse me if I find that hard to believe." Kate laughed, taking a long look at the man responsible for Aaron's situation, "You faked your own death, you've apparently injected Aaron with some foreign substance that could prove fatal and you call that looking out for her? You're either a complete sociopath, or the worst father ever or both, but what you did was beyond unforgivable, it was unethical, immoral and I'm sure I can think of a hundred other words to describe what you did to that little boy, but I would never let you near Claire or Aaron."

"You think you have all the answers don't you? That can be very unhealthy, especially when you have only pieces of the story." Christian said, walking back over to the vehicle he was sitting on, opened the passenger door and pulled out a large knapsack and walked back towards Kate, "I don't owe you anything, but it seems you have been the victim of some serious misinformation. While some of what you allege is true, most of it is not."

Kate looked at the knapsack and quickly opened it. She pulled out a video tape, a large folder full of documents and a small vial filled with something. She looked back up at Christian, "You could save me some time and just tell me what all this stuff is supposed to mean to me?"

"I could, but you wouldn't believe it."

"Try me."

"Okay, here's what really happened." Christian said as he sat back up on the vehicle, "Claire became pregnant and came to me about it. She was adamant that she wasn't ready to become a mother. I advised her to give the baby up for adoption. I admit that I had set things in motion so that I would end up with custody of Aaron, but I was not the one who injected him with the alien DNA."

Kate stood expressionless in front of Christian, "You're right, I don't believe you."

"I knew Claire would regret this decision, but it might take her some time to mature and realize she wanted her baby back. I had planned on raising the child until she was ready to take care of it. It wasn't the perfect scenario, but I honestly felt it would work."

"Then how did Aaron get this DNA injected into him? Who did it? Why? Why didn't you stop them?" Kate said, screaming each question louder than the last.

"One question at a time." Christian said with a slight grin, "In my line of work I've met a lot of powerful people. Not always the most honest, kind or friendly people either. My research was very important to me and still is, but I was not ready to try this DNA on a human. I'm not saying I wouldn't have done it in the future, but I would not have used my own grandson as a test subject."

"Just tell me who did it and why."

"Okay, straight to the point. In order to keep doing the research I wanted to do I needed a lot of cash. I was doing it without the support of the medical community and it requires a lot of time and money. One of the people I found to invest in my research was Bernard Nagler, an extremely wealthy businessman who was more than happy to help me out, but there was a cost."

"Am I supposed to feel sorry for you or something?"

"Not at all. Bernard was just one of the high profile people who invested in my research. I was very good at selling how important this research could be and they were very excited about being part of the final product, which in their minds would be an indestructible fighting machine. Along the way, these powerful people began to fight amongst themselves, each wanting to be sole investor and that's when things got out of hand."

"Was it Bernard or not?"

"Bernard did not inject Aaron. He would've had he been given the choice, but he didn't have access to Aaron. I was betrayed by someone I worked with. Up until a few days ago I didn't know who it was."

"Oh just tell me."

"Even though I had ruled her out numerous times as the culprit, a new piece of evidence has come to light that proves without a doubt that my assistant, Charlotte Lewis was the one who injected Aaron."

"Why?"

"For science and for greed." Christian continued, "She always wanted to test this on humans. She was very anxious to see the results. While I had the same feelings, I knew we needed to do way more tests for a much longer period of time before we ever got to that stage. But, when you dangle a huge amount of money in front of an ambitious young woman this is what happens."

"Where is Charlotte now? I'm assuming you've dealt with her or you wouldn't be so calm about all this."

"Yes, it turns out she had an unfortunate accident and is no longer with us."

"That's nice, but what about Aaron? What's going to happen to him?"

"I honestly don't know. He'll have to be monitored his whole life. If any of these symptoms began to show in him, he'll be a threat to everyone, including his mother. This is a tragic situation that should never have happened, but Aaron needs to be somewhere secure. I can't risk Claire's life when I don't know how this is going to play out."

"This is all so wrong." Kate said, struggling to come to grips with everything she was hearing, "You know, if it wasn't Aaron, you'd just pick some other stranger off the street to test it on. You are no better than she was. Because whoever you picked would be someone's child."

"That might be true, but whoever I picked wouldn't have much of life left. Some bum of the street, but I wouldn't pick a child."

"How noble of you."

"In a way it is." Christian said calmly, "Now, there are still people out there who want Aaron and I'm here to make sure they don't get him."

Kate pushed Christian away from her, "Well, I will make sure Clair and Aaron are safe, so you can go back to your little psycho lab and get back to your creepy research."

"I don't think I'm making myself clear Miss Austen; you are no longer part of Claire's life." Christian motioned at the soldiers surrounding Kate, who quickly got her under control, "Oh Claire will be sad for a while when she finds out you left her, but she'll get over it. I'll make sure of it."

Kate glared back at Claire's father, "You're going to kill me?"

**Sakhalin Island, East coast of Russia**. 

Ben checked the address on the door with the address John had given him and promptly rang the bell of the rather dilapidated old building. Moments later an elderly man opened the door, "Hello?"

"Ah, you speak English. Are you Evgeni Malatov?

"Yes I am and I've been expecting you. Please come in." Evgeni said as he stepped to the side and motioned Ben forward.

Once inside Ben stopped and held out his hand, "I'm a Ben Linus, a friend of John Locke and he asked me to bring you some samples to be tested."

"My lab is downstairs. Follow me." The elderly man said with impeccable English. He led the way down a strange narrow diagonal stairway made of an equally strange combination of metals and liquids. Each step filled with a different colored liquid and swimming around in the liquid were different types of fish and mammals.

Ben stopped in his tracks when he spotted a dolphin in one of the last steps, steps no bigger than a large tool box, and yet there it was, swimming around beneath him. On the very next step he spotted a great white shark, no bigger than his shoe, something that did not compute, "Are these computer generated images or creations?"

"Ah, you noticed my friends." Evgeni said with a proud smile, "You'd be amazed at how many people use those stairs and never see a thing."

"I'm more interested in whether they are real or not. They look incredibly life like, but it's not possible for them to be so small. It's just not."

"I think the word impossible is clearly inappropriate for something you know very little about." Evgeni continued walking through the well lit, futuristic looking lab until he came to a round window on the far east wall. He stopped and waited for Ben to catch up, "This is a better way to observe my creations."

Leaning into the window, Ben watched as mammals of all sizes swam around in the immense tank, including at least two massive whales, numerous dolphins, several types of sharks, mixed together with much small versions of each species.

"How?" Ben asked, filled with wonder at everything he was seeing, "That's all I can think to ask."

"Well that's a very long answer, but it is directly connected to what John has asked me to test for him." Evgeni said as he moved to his right and walked over to another large tank, "This is what happens when a shark's DNA is changed dramatically."

Ben walked over, stood in front of the large window, watching intently as a shark prowled through the water. Very little was different from the outside, but when Evgeni pushed a button on the side panel, it released a dozen different types of fish and mammals into the tank. Within seconds, the shark had begun ripping them to pieces, splitting a much bigger shark in two with one ferocious bite, inhaling the remains as if it were a snack.

"If I may ask, how many different creatures did you try this on before one exhibited these qualities?"

"John gave me the DNA three years ago and this is the only specimen that's ever changed. A rough estimate is that over 2000 creatures have been injected with this DNA with no significant changes occurring."

"Fascinating." Ben said as he watched the Shark devour every creature in the tank in minutes, leaving nothing but a bloody pool of water.

"As you can see, there have been other changes to these creatures, but I was beginning to lose faith that any would ever turn into the killing machines that John had told me about. Only two weeks ago did this creature turn, but when it did, it happened very quickly, I'd say in less than hours, it turned into what you just witnessed."

"How do you control it? I assume you moved it to the other tank, but that means you were able to tranquilize it by some means?"

"In fact it took my whole supply of tranquilizing darts, along with many powerful sedatives to finally knock it out. It seems to have gained an immunity to such things. How I do not know, but along with that, when we thought we couldn't control it we tried to kill it. If you look closely, you'll see some marks...well I'll be, their gone."

"What's gone?"

Evgeni grabbed a magnifying glass from the counter and put it up against the glass, "We used harpoons, rifles and even machine guns to try and neutralize it, but nothing worked. It's as if it healed as fast as it was damaged. I have been going over its DNA and it's so complex I have yet to figure it out. If we can figure out what these changes mean, how they came about and how we can possibly duplicate them in the future, the implications are beyond comprehension."

"I want to know if the brain cells were affected the same way as other parts of the shark? Is it just pure physical force that makes it a killing machine or was the brain also improved? Did it think quicker and more logical if you will?" Ben asked, but quickly turned back to the much larger tank, "What about these creatures, the ones who changed appearance yet didn't seem to turn into the killing machines? How did their DNA change?"

"That I can tell you." Evgeni said with a smile, walking back over to his desk he sat down in front of his computer. "Every creature's DNA changed, but the vast majority, some 98%, the changes were all but meaningless. However, there were a few changes that defied explanation, such as the creatures who's molecular structure literally shrunk some 200%. A few exhibited changes to skin tone, fin structure, eye color, basically aesthetic changes, but none grew bigger, which surprised me to a degree. I expected a much wider array of changes than we've seen."

"Back to the DNA, specifically that tiny little great white shark, what have you learned about its DNA?"

"It's much the same as the killing machine shark. The changes were drastic and as of now unknown. The DNA patterns have been altered beyond anything we've ever seen before. It will take years to fully grasp what this means."

"Obviously John has chosen to keep this information away from all the different governments, but more and more people are finding out about this, how are you going to keep this place safe?"

"As you saw, it's not out in the open, but what you don't know is where we are right now."

"Meaning what?"

"We are not in Russia." Evgeni said with a mischievous grin.

Ben looked around, tracing his steps back to where he came in. He tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge. He turned to find Evgeni pointing a strange weapon at him, "What's this all about?"

"I don't trust you Mr. Linus." Evgeni said sharply, backing up into a large lab, closing the door quickly. He turned on an intercom and smiled at Ben through the window, "I've read all about you. I know that you have your own agenda. I know that John trusts you more than he should, but he's not a stupid man, he told me to proceed with caution. I think it's time we tested your loyalty."

"I've done nothing to deserve this." Ben protested.

"You have two options right now, you can open the door and take your chances or you can sit and wait for John and Sayid to get here, but either way, you are not getting your hands on this DNA."

"I want to you call John now. He will assure you that I am not a threat."

"He knows you want the DNA, but he doesn't know why. Are you ready to tell him why?"

Ben paced back and forth around the desk, finally coming to a stop, "John knows there are mysteries on that island that have yet to be solved and somehow this DNA is connected to that island. I know it is. It may have been found somewhere else, but I believe its true purpose is to help solve the mystery of this island."

"Based on what?" Evgeni asked.

"I've been doing my own research into the place this DNA was found. I believe that the creatures who possessed this DNA were in fact looking for the island. I didn't share this with John because it was just hunch, but I believe these are the same creatures in the drawings from Vault." 

"If you had no sinister use for the DNA why not just tell John?"

"John has his own theories about the island and about the creatures and I felt that we could both get what we wanted, but he didn't believe there was enough DNA to go around."

"It just proves you can't be trusted."

"Had I wanted you dead you'd be dead." Ben said boldly, "John knows that I was working on the inside to get information on Rahim and Charlotte. Call him and find out for yourself."

"I think I will." Evgeni moved over to a computer terminal, picked up a phone and made the call.

John picked up his cell phone from the desk, "Hello?

"John, that associate of yours is here, Ben Linus. He claims you know about him working with Charlotte and Rahim, is this true?"

"Yes it is. We've been trying to find a way to infiltrate their inner circle and Ben was the perfect choice. Is something wrong there?"

"I just don't trust him. Something seems off. You do realize he has his own personal agenda when it comes that DNA."

"I never asked what he wanted the DNA for, I did tell him that he wasn't getting any of it until we had found a way to save Aaron and that hasn't changed."

"If you're sure I can trust him I'll let him go."

"I'm not sure about anything when it comes to Ben, but I don't believe he wants to start a war and killing you would do just that."

"Okay then, how much information do you want me to share with him?"

"Everything." John said boldly and without hesitation, "We need as many people working on this as we can get. Despite is peculiar nature, he has brilliant mind and we need that working for us right now."

"Good enough. Did you want to talk to him at all?"

"Actually yes, put him on for a bit."

Evgeni opened the door to the lab, walked out and handed Ben the phone, "John wants to talk to you."

Ben grabbed the phone and smiled, "That's quite a friend you have here."

"We've captured Charlotte and Sun has Rahim in her sights, so this might be coming to end sooner than we thought. We're still no closer to finding a solution for Aaron."

"We all know that the best solution is to keep him isolated where we can monitor him 24/7, but since nobody seems to want to do that there's nothing more we can do. Research takes time and we don't have Aaron here to do the tests that need to be done for the research to begin."

"We might have him soon. You've seen some of Evgeni's research by now, has he made any progress?"

"In terms of research that will help Aaron I'd say that until we start doing tests on Aaron himself we can't know anything for certain. In Christian's experiments, he found that 1 out of every 500 monkey's exhibited the killer gene, but with fish and mammals the ration seems significantly lower, only 1 in 2000, we need to find out what this ratio is for humans and we only have one test subject."

"As much as I agree that Aaron should be kept in a secure facility, there's no way in hell Claire or Kate will agree to that. I don't blame them, if it were my child I wouldn't want that either. We have to think of big picture here and if we can't find a solution to this we'll have to what needs to be done."

"Let me know when you have Aaron."

"Will do." John said.

Ben walked over to Evgeni, handed him the phone and smiled, "Do you have anything to eat?"

**End of Chapter 7**.

**Comments and feedback are always welcome and appreciated.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8.**

**Underground Shelter in Southeast Bali**

"If that's what it takes, yes." Christian said with a smug smile, "For now, you are going to be put in a very unpleasant situation and after a year or two, I'm guessing you'll be so out of touch with reality that you won't even remember Claire's name."

"You underestimate me." Kate said with a confident smile, "I have more willpower than you'll ever know. I will never forget Claire. So do your worst, but you'll have to kill me to keep me away from her."

"Again, if that's what it takes, then so be it, but I think once she finds out you took Aaron from her, she'll never trust you again. Then, after you've disappeared from her life for a few years she'll forget about you and that's all I care about."

"Why do I have to disappear for this to happen?" Kate wondered, still not grasping Christian's motives, "I told you that I will take care of them.

Christian sighed, "I know you'd try, but the cold hard truth is if any of these symptoms show up in Aaron I don't think you or Claire will be able to do what has to be done."

"Oh god, you mean kill him? Are you insane? There has to be another way."

"I'm afraid there's not." Christian said softly, showing a momentary sign of compassion, "If you've heard anything about my experiments you'll know what happens to someone who is affected by this DNA. They become killing machines. It takes a lot to kill one small monkey that's been affected with this DNA, can you imagine what it would be like to stop a full grown man with this kind of power? We're talking about enough firepower to take down a small town. I don't want to think about this anymore than you do, but this is no decision that Claire should ever have to make."

"Find a solution then. My god, you're a scientist, a doctor, do something. There has to be something you can do that can counteract this."

"We are working on finding some link between the animals that displayed the unusual symptoms, but so far we haven't come up with anything. It could take months or years to narrow down what causes this to happen in these animals, but we don't know if that will have the same affect on a human, because Aaron is the only human who's ever been injected with this DNA."

"Then let John help. Let everyone help you find the answer. Stop acting like you are the only one who can save Aaron, because you aren't. I don't care if Bernard discovers a way to save him, I just want to know that he'll live a long healthy life and doesn't have to be locked in some cell forever." Kate screamed, growing angrier and impatient by the minute, "You do realize that if you ever take Aaron from Claire you'll lose her forever? You can't want that."

"I also don't want my daughter murdered by Aaron if he begins to exhibit symptoms." Christian said angrily as he walked up to the large door that separated him from his daughter, "I will continue to work day and night to find out a way to make sure Aaron can live a long happy life, but I can't leave this decision up to Claire. She can hate me all she wants, but this is how it has to be, now open this door."

"No, I won't." Kate said quickly.

"I need to do one test on him before I do anything else."

"Why? What test?"

"When an animal is injected with the DNA it instantly changes its original DNA, sometimes changing it radically, sometimes the changes are barely noticeable, but I always have a copy of the original DNA of each animal before I inject it, so I know what the changes are. I did the same with Aaron."

"What? I heard you did this while it was still inside Claire?"

"No, that's not true. More misinformation." Christian said shaking his head, "I always wanted to give the DNA to a living creature, but some of my colleagues thought that it might work best on an embryo, an idea I quickly squashed. The point is, I do have Aaron's DNA from before the injection, so what I want to do is test him and see what his DNA looks like now."

"But you know he was injected, how is that going to help anything?"

"Well, I was thinking on the way over here that if Aaron's DNA hasn't changed then perhaps all this worrying is for not."

Kate rapidly shook her head, "No, because if you do see a change then you'll take him and we'll never see him again."

"Would you wake up Kate." Christian snapped, "This is not some fairytale with a happy ending. It doesn't matter if Aaron lives to be a 100, his whole life is going to be monitored and he'll never live the kind of life you'd want him to live. He cannot be part of society because the risks are too great. That's final. I don't care how hard this is, if you don't accept this now and help Claire accept this, then I will have to use extreme measures to assure that this experiment doesn't cause more damage than it already has."

"We are back to that are we?" Kate sighed, shaking her head as she looked around the multitude of armed men surrounding her, "You know that I have a lot of people on my side and even if you do manage to steal Aaron, you'll be on the run yourself, from John, Sayid, me and even your own son, so why can't we just try and work on a solution together?"

A large convoy of vehicle pulled up and a tall dark haired man with a long beard stepped out of the first truck and walked towards Christian and Kate, "Well, I see you've found her. Where's the boy?"

"Who the hell are you?" Kate asked as she stepped towards the man. A mass of men armed with machine guns stepped in front of the man, pointing their weapons at Kate's head.

The tall dark haired man took Kate's hand and kissed it gently, "My name is Rahim and I'm here to take Aaron. Whether his mother lives or dies is completely up to you."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, I don't much care about you or the baby's mother, but I am giving you a chance to hand over Aaron and to take Claire and live whatever life you choose to live with her."

"I'm not giving you Aaron." Kate yelled, "I know what you'll do with him if he exhibits any of those symptoms. I can't let you kill him. I won't do it."

"I assumed you'd say that, but I felt it was only fair to give you a way out." Rahim said calmly as he turned to one of his associates, "Get the explosives and take Christian and Kate and put them in separate vehicles for now."

"No, you can't do that. You'll kill them."

"Miss Austen, I know what I'm doing, we've had this place under surveillance for a long time, we know the exact size of this shelter, we know the materials it's made from and we know exactly how much explosives are needed, so please shut up and let me do my job."

Christian struggled to get free, but couldn't budge from the grips of the men holding him back, "This is too risky. Bernard would never okay this."

"Oh right, you are unaware of the recent developments, but Bernard is no longer in control." Rahim said with a satisfied grin, "He is in the hands of Interpol at this very moment. I am calling the shots now and I say we blow this place up and hope for the best. If this doesn't work, well we still have lots of DNA and many millions of newborns to try it on."

"Are you insane?" Kate yelled, "Don't do this."

"Then open the shelter and save Claire and Aaron." Rahim bellowed, "As I said, it's up to you."

"You are a sick bastard." Kate screamed.

Rahim smiled, "Be that as it may, the choice is yours."

Christian lunged forward, "Don't do it Kate, he's bluffing."

Kate shook her head in dismay, "I don't think so and I can't risk it."

"Claire will never forgive you for saving her at the expense of Aaron's life."

"If I don't and he kills them both, I'll never be able to live with myself. I'm sorry, but I have to do this." Kate turned and back towards the shelter, pulled out her cell phone and clicked on Claire's name and waited.

Claire picked up her phone, "Kate, what's going on out there?"

"I need you to open the door."

"Is it safe?"

Kate hung her head, knowing there was no way she could answer that without lying, "I need to see you. Your father is here."

"What?" Claire asked, her eyes lighting up instantly, "I'm coming out, I need to set him straight on some things."

Moments later the large thick steel door opened and a group of men rushed towards Claire. Two men held her still and another grabbed Aaron as Claire screamed for them to stop.

When the dust had settled Claire looked over at Kate with several guns pointed at her head and her father with the same treatment, "What the hell is going on? Why did you tell me to come out?"

"I'm sorry. I had no choice." Kate explained frantically, "They were going to blow it up, they didn't care if you lived or died."

"Who are they?"

Rahim stepped towards the cute blonde, "We are interested in science you could say and your son is a very important experiment in progress. As your father has undoubtedly explained, your son has the potential to be a deadly threat to not only you but the entire human race. While I don't particularly care about you or the human race, I do care about money and the DNA inside your son. It has the potential to be the most sought after discovery in the history of mankind."

"What's wrong with you people?" Claire asked, looking around at the swarm of armed men surrounding her, "He's just a little boy. He's my little boy. I won't let you take him."

Laughing at Claire's bold declaration, Rahim walked over to the man who was holding Aaron, put his hand over the young boy's head and caressed it softly, "He really is a cute young boy, but in life we have to make some very hard decisions and this one is really best left out of your hands, because no mother should have to be in the position of watching her son die."

"He isn't going to die. He's not what you think."

"I think what's unfortunate is he's not what you think. He ceased to be your son the moment that ambitious associate of your fathers chose to inject him with what appears to be alien DNA." Rahim walked back over to Claire and handed her a DVD, "You should watch this. It's not for the faint of heart, but it might be the only way you truly understand the challenges your son faces."

"What is it?" Claire asked as she stared at the DVD.

"It's a compilation of some of your father's successful DNA recipients." Rahim explained, "I say successful because in the world of science it is, but that success came at the expense of countless people's lives. The gruesome nature of their deaths is what you have to look forward to if in fact Aaron begins to change. While it won't make you feel any differently about your son, it might give you some small understanding of why so many people want to keep a very close eye on him."

Kate lunged at Rahim, "You can't just steal someone's son and think you'll get away with it."

"I hate to disappoint you, but I can and will. Now please know this, it's for his own good and in time you'll see that." Rahim motioned towards one of his men, "Take the women and put them on the plane to Los Angeles, but Christian is coming with us."

Claire watched as a group of men grabbed her father and dragged him into the back of a large transport vehicle, "What do you need him for?"

"He's the man who set this all in motion with his research, his information is vital to what we have planned. You should be happy he'll be around to look after your son." Rahim said with a smile as he hopped into a large military vehicle and motioned for his convoy to move out.

After they had left, a group of four men took them aboard the rather old looking 747. They put them in opposite sides of the plane, but on the same row, allowing them the ability to talk to each other.

During the few moments when the men weren't pointing guns at them, Kate tried to figure out what to do about the situation. She noticed one man climb into the pilot's seat, setting his gun down beside him, while the other hopped into the co pilot's seat, but kept his gun in his hand. The third man was behind the two women, doing something in the back, while the forth man was doing a last second maintenance check of the large plane.

Kate leaned over and smiled at Claire, "We are going to get out of this. We are going to get Aaron back. I promise you that. How comfortable are you with a gun?"

"What? We don't have guns?"

Smiling at Claire, Kate let out a chuckle, "I know, but I mean if I get that gun up there can you use it? Will you use if your life is danger?"

"No, I don't want you risking your life. They said they were taking us to LA, why don't we just wait."

"Something about this doesn't feel right." Kate sighed as she kept a close eye on the man behind her, "I know what they said, but I also know we are liabilities to Rahim and I'd rather get off this plane now."

"You think they're going to kill us?" Claire asked as she began looking around nervously.

"I won't let that happen." Kate said confidently, putting her arms around Claire so she could whisper in her ear, "You need to stay calm right now, because I don't know how this is going to play out. I need a distraction. Can you fake some type of illness? Just let out a few screams and grab your stomach or head or something, just let them know you're in serious pain. We can hope the pilot and the other guy come, because if I can get the gun from the other man, we'll have some leverage."

"This sounds way too dangerous."

"We might not have a choice. If we get into the air we'll have no way out."

"God, I hate this. How can you not be scared?" Claire wondered as she squeezed Kate's hand tightly. "I'm terrified."

"Oh I'm scared, but I'm focused on getting you to safety and that will keep me calm when I need to be." Kate said softly as she smiled at Claire, leaning in and kissing her softly on the lips. Hoping that wouldn't be the last kiss they shared. "If I have problems getting his weapon, the other guy might jump in and I need you to run up to the cockpit and grab that gun and you'll know what to do with it. Fire a shot in the air, get their attention and that should give me enough time to secure the other gun. Hopefully I can get it right away, but I need you to be ready for any scenario."

Claire shook her head at Kate, "I don't know if I can do this. I know how to shoot a gun, but I've never shot a person before."

"I hope you don't have to, but I need you to be able to if things go wrong."

"Alright, I will. I can do this."

One of the men turned around as the talking continued, "Shut up back there or we'll do it for you. We are getting ready to take off, so sit back and enjoy the ride."

"This is it. We need to get off this plane now." Kate said as she stepped to the side and nodded at Claire.

Claire took the cue and began to moan, softly at first and then louder and louder, getting to her feet only to fall to floor grabbing her stomach as if she were dying. Sure enough the man closest to them rushed towards her, knelt down and asked if she were okay. It was then that Kate made her move.

She grabbed the man by the neck, used every ounce of strength she could muster and squeezed the man's head until he passed out. She slowly lowered him to the ground, removed his gun and made her way towards the cockpit.

As she got to the entrance, she took a deep breath, aimed her gun at the co-pilot, "Don't move."

Both men spun around at the sound of her voice, with the pilot reaching for his gun the second he saw Kate and with no other option available she turned towards him and fired her gun. She hit the man in the shoulder before he could grab the gun, but then the co-pilot reached down for his gun and once again she fired her weapon, this time hitting the man in the back, but after letting out a loud scream, he managed to spin around and aim his gun at Kate. She fired her weapon again, hitting the main square in the chest, causing him to fall forward.

Claire ran towards Kate, looked down at the floor and saw blood dripping and let out a scream. She looked Kate over before spotting the source of the blood, a bullet hole in her left thigh, "OMG, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Get that gun away from him" Kate yelled, pointing at the gun beside the pilot, "Get the gun from the man beside him to."

Reluctantly leaving Kate's side, Claire moved forward and removed the two weapons and held them out in front of Kate, "What do I do with them? Shouldn't we leave them here? Don't the police need them?"

"Oh Claire, there won't be any police involved." Kate said with a slight smile, "Once I talk to John this will all be taken care of, but first there's still one man left. I'm not going to be much help, but I will call him inside and he shouldn't have his weapon out, so you should be able to subdue him fairly easily."

"I hope so. I don't want to shoot anyone."

"Just be ready." Kate said with a nod and then looked towards the back of the plane, "Someone get in here. The pilot collapsed. Hurry."

Seconds later the last man climbed into the plane and quickly came to a halt as he saw two guns pointed at him.

Kate pointed her weapon at the man, "Drop your gun slowly to the floor and you can live another day. Do something stupid and well, I think you know what happens."

Hesitating for only a brief moment, the man slowly reached around and slowly removed his gun and tossed it towards the two women, "You'll never get out of here alive. This place is filled with Rahim's men."

"That's not your concern, but I do need to know where he's taking Claire's father."

"I have no idea." The man said, tossing his hands in the air, "Rahim doesn't share information with anyone. It's always on a need to know basis and I'm just the hired help."

Kate waved her gun in front of the man, "Tell me what your orders were for us?"

Changing his tune as he felt the barrel of the gun pushing against his temple, "You were going to have a nice long flight, at least part of a flight and then you were going to see how well you could fly."

"I thought as much and that doesn't make me very happy." Kate said, wishing she could walk over and wipe the smirk off the man's face, "Get in the cockpit with your associates. As you can see we are both very capable of using these, so unless you have a death wish don't do anything stupid."

"I'm no martyr. I'd much rather stay alive because I know I can't wait to meet you again one day."

"Don't you threaten her." Claire yelled, waving her gun in the man's face.

Kate pulled Claire back a few steps, "Ignore him."

"She can't ignore me, because she knows I will kill you the first chance I get."

"I thought you said you didn't want to die?" Kate said with an annoyed smile, "You don't want to make her mad."

"I'm not after her, but you on the other have a bounty on your head and it's not from Rahim, so you think about that while I enjoy a nice short visit to prison. I'll be out before you reach your precious home."

Claire looked at Kate, "What the hell is he talking about?"

Before Kate could reply a gunshot rang out and then man fell to the ground in a heap. Both women spun around, weapons drawn until they saw Sun standing in front of them, "Why'd you kill him?" Kate asked as she stared back at Sun.

Sun nodded, "I have my reasons, but he's right, you do have a bounty on your head so we need to get out of here now. I don't have time to explain, but you need come with me."

Claire put her arm around Kate's waist and led her out of the plane, slowly down the stairs where a handful of well armed men waited. Two men brought out a stretcher and helped Kate onto it and then whisked her onto the plane off to the west.

Sun grabbed Claire's arm as she began to follow Kate, "You have to come with me. Kate needs medical attention and we need you to help get your little boy back."

"I don't want to leave Kate. We're in this together. She'd want to be there." Claire said as she watched Kate fade out of view, causing her to turn her attention to Sun, "What are you doing here anyway?"

"Helping of course." Sun said with a slight smile while walking towards a large armoured vehicle, "There are things that I can't tell you right now, but I promise as soon as you get your little boy back I will answer any questions you have. Right now you have to trust me. Kate does and I know you trust her."

"Why does everyone I know have secrets?" Claire asked

Ignoring Claire's question, Sun helped her onto the two tiered vehicle, handing her a bullet proof vest and a matching helmet, "You shouldn't need these, but we are in a dangerous area and I want to keep you alive."

Claire looked at the items she was given and instinctively began putting them on, "Where are we going?"

Sun waited for Claire to put her helmet on before adjusting both the vest and the helmet on her, "We are tracking Rahim and your father is with him right now but I don't think your father will live if we can't stop Rahim from reaching his rendezvous point."

"Why would he kill my father? I thought he needed him?"

"It's a long story, but your father has only one chance at surviving and that's using your son as a bargaining chip." Sun explained as she reached into her purse for her cell phone. "I need to call Sayid, he's got some new information on your father."

**End of Chapter 8**.

**Comments and feedback are always welcome and appreciated.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**.

**Outside the Karbash Research Facility**.

John ushered Shannon into the passenger seat and walked around to the driver's side. As he unlocked the door a bullet grazed his ear and flew through the window and into the car, putting a hole in the dashboard, causing Shannon to hit the ground.

"The next one won't miss." Charlotte said with a big smile. She moved slowly forward, her long red curls blowing in the wind as she stepped in front of John, "You're too late anyway. We have Kate, Claire and the baby, so you really didn't do a very good of protecting your assets, did you?"

"When did you last talk to Rahim?" John asked with a confident smile.

"Less than an hour ago." Charlotte said, while moving slowly towards the vehicle, "He said everything was going according to plan. I don't think things have changed since then. Anyway, I'm not here for you, I'm here for that dumb blonde cowering in the car."

"You're free to take her and if you want to kill her I'll give you the bullets." John said with a smile.

Shannon popped up from the floor of the car, "That's really nice John. I've tried to help you and this is the thanks I get?"

Charlotte smiled at Shannon, "Come here you pretty thing you. If I can get Rahim to go along with it I might not have to kill you."

"Don't listen to her." John warned, while keeping his eye on Charlotte's fancy .38 calibre American Derringer she kept waving around.

"You just offered to help me kill her, do you really think she should listen to you?" Charlotte asked with a cute smirk.

Shannon stepped out of the car and walked slowly over to Charlotte, "If you promise not to kill me I'll go with you."

"That's so sweet." Charlotte said as she put her arm around Shannon's waist, "You actually believe you have a choice." Once she had Shannon firmly in her grip she began to back up. Once she was far enough away from John she slowly turned around only to be met with a fist square on her nose, sending her to the ground writhing in pain.

John walked over and shook Sayid's hand, "Nice timing. Do you have any word and Kate and Claire?"

"Not yet, but Sun is in place and I hope to be hearing from her soon."

"God damn it, you broke my nose." Charlotte screamed from the ground, her hands covered in blood as she tried her best to stop the bleeding.

John picked up Charlotte's gun and stared down at the redhead, "Where were you taking Shannon?"

"You think I'm going to tell you anything?" Charlotte asked with a laugh.

"Kill her." John said as he tossed the gun to Sayid.

"Wait. You can't kill me, you're the good guys." Charlotte said, "You have to take me to the police or something."

Sayid smiled at Charlotte, grabbing the tall redhead by the shirt, "You didn't learn much on the island did you? I work for nobody. You won't be dying any time soon either. It's been a long time since I've had someone to practice my interrogation techniques on."

"What are you talking about?" Charlotte asked as Sayid pulled out a long serrated blade.

Shannon ran towards Charlotte, "Are you stupid? He used to be in the Iraqi army, he tortured people in ways you can't even imagine. If you think protecting Rahim is worth unimaginable pain then by all means have fun."

"You don't know Rahim, he's ruthless." Charlotte said, turning to John with a much less antagonistic tone, "Can you protect me from him if I tell you where he is?"

Sayid smiled and grabbed Charlotte by the neck, "I don't have time for games. Tell me where you were going and where Rahim is now."

"Fine." Charlotte groaned, "I was meeting him Los Angeles. He's taking a plane here as soon as he gets the kid. If he hasn't done it yet, he's planning on killing the two women as well."

"Get on the phone with Sun now." John ordered, looking right at Sayid as he did.

Sayid's phone began to ring before he pushed a button, "Hello?"

"I have Claire with me and Kate is safe, but Rahim has Aaron and Christian and he's headed for his plane." Sun said calmly.

"We have a tracking device on it and we know he's headed to LA so if he does manage to get on it there's no need to panic."

"I don't think Rahim is working alone." Sun said softly, hoping Claire didn't hear.

"We don't either, but we haven't figured out who his partner is, well besides Charlotte that is." Sayid slid his hands around Charlotte's cute yet tiny neck and smiled, "We do have her though and I'm positive I can get more information out of her."

"Good, because something doesn't feel right." Sun looked out the window and saw the group of vehicles she was following pull into a small airport. "I have to go, we're at the airfield. I'll try and stop him but I may not have enough resources."

Charlotte struggled to get free, but she couldn't move an inch, finally giving up with a disgusted groan, "Let go of me and I'll tell you what you want to know."

Sayid released his grip and let Charlotte loose, but kept his gun aimed at her head, "We're all listening."

"There is another person working with Rahim." Charlotte said, while trying to stop the blood from spewing out of her nose. "Someone you all know very well, but you think he's an ally. That's the amusing part."

"Just say the name."

"I don't know the boss. I really don't. I know who's carrying out his orders and he's much higher up on the chain of command than Rahim."

Sayid reached in with his knife and slid it up against Charlotte's throat, "One more delay and you are dead."

"It's Charlie Pace."

John moved forward, "More lies. He's dead. Do you do any research before you concoct your lies?"

Charlotte held her hands up, "I'm going to reach into my pocket and pull out the proof you need."

"Don't move one inch or I'll shoot." Sayid snapped. He turned to Shannon, "Find out what's in her pocket."

Shannon happily walked over to Charlotte, knelt down and put her hand inside her jeans, "Man these are tight, how did you get this in here, magic?" After a few seconds Shannon pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Sayid.

John walked over and they both read it together. It was an email from Charlie to Rahim dated one day ago. "I'm heading to Russia. Once we control that lab we'll make it our new home base. I don't think John suspects anything, but I'm following Ben right now and he'll lead me right to it. Let me know when you have the child. You need to come here not LA. This lab has everything we need and more."

"Well, do think it's real?" Sayid asked.

"I'll have to analyze it further, but one email is not enough proof, anyone can type an email." John said as he turned and shook his head in disgust, "I need to call Evgeni and see if he's still alive. Ben was right about that lab, we need to make sure they don't get control of it there's no telling what they can do."

Sayid grabbed Charlotte as she tried to inch away from everyone, "What do you want me to do with her?"

"At this point I don't care. If you want to kill her, go ahead." John growled and then turned and walked back into his own lab.

"Don't kill her." Shannon pleaded.

"Why? If she stays alive she's a threat to everyone." Sayid said, confused by Shannon's please, "In case you don't know, she's the one who injected that little boy with the alien DNA."

Shannon's face went white as she stared back at a smiling Charlotte, "You didn't do that? Tell me you're not evil?"

Charlotte shrugged, "I wish I could, but you don't understand what that little boy has inside him."

"Okay, I'm with John, kill her." Shannon said

"Looks like you're outvoted." Sayid said with a smile.

"We had a deal." Charlotte screamed at John, "I can still help you. Rahim doesn't know I've been captured, I can still help you get him."

"She may be right." Sayid nodded and again looked over at Shannon, "Go to my truck and get some rope out of the back." He tossed her the keys and kept his gun pointed at Charlotte's head.

Shannon took a couple steps and then stopped, "What are you going to do with it?"

Sayid rolled his eyes at Shannon's paranoia, "Perhaps I will tie her up so she can't escape."

"Could someone please get me some new clothes, these are covered in blood." Charlotte said as she looked down at her blood stained t-shirt and jeans, "And I would really appreciate a quick trip to the bathroom first so I can clean this blood off my face. I can hardly breathe right now."

"Fine, but you aren't going to be alone in there." Sayid grabbed Charlotte and dragged her towards John's lab.

Shannon followed with some rope and they headed back down to the lab.

** Bali**.

**Inside a makeshift triage center.**

Jack bandaged Kate's thigh and sat back down across from her, "Is this how you protect Claire, by getting shot and putting her life in danger?"

"Oh Jack, you know that's not true." Kate said with an annoyed smirk, before quickly changing to just plain annoyed, "Why are you here anyway?"

"Because as usual you need my help."

Kate rolled her eyes at Jack's lame answer, "Why don't you tell me the truth and save us both some time."

"Because I care about what happens to Claire and her little boy and believe it or not I still care what happens to you." Jack said calmly as he met Kate's angry glare and finally let out a sigh, "Fine, I've been working with Sun for a few months now, off the record. I couldn't sit by and do nothing while your lives were in danger."

"I appreciate you wanting to help, but I need to see Claire." Kate attempted to get to her feet, "Where did Sun take her?"

Jack quickly stopped Kate from moving, "Sun knows what she's doing. Let her take care of business and you'll be with Claire and Aaron soon enough."

"You know I can't just sit here and wait." Kate said, feeling very uneasy about Jack's demeanour. "Why are you so calm about all this. It's as if you know how this is going to end? How's that Jack? What aren't you telling me?"

"I wish you would just let it go. I promise you that Claire and Aaron are safe and you will be seeing them both very soon." Jack answered before getting another evil look from Claire, "I shouldn't be telling you this, but I know you're worried and I know you'll find out about it soon enough. Sun has been tracking Rahim for the better part of a week now and she's also had his communications bugged and let's just say she knows where he's going or trying to go."

"Then why can't I go be with her?"

"Rahim wants you dead, that's why." Jack said bluntly.

"I don't understand. I don't even know him." Kate shook her head, still puzzled by Jack's comment, "Someone on the plane said something similar to that. Why does a man I don't know want me dead so bad? You have all the answers, fill me in?"

Knowing he had little choice, Jack got to his feet, "Think back to 2002, long before flight 815 went down. You were on a mission in Saudi Arabia and as you know it didn't go according to plan and you were forced to kill just to escape alive. One of the people you killed was Rahim's brother and being a powerful and vengeful man, he vowed to hunt you down and kill you."

"I can't believe this. Then why didn't he just kill me?"

"Because, he values greed over vengeance and saw you as a way to help get control of Aaron, but now that he has Aaron, you became expendable."

"I don't care." Kate yelled, once again trying to get to her feet, "If Sun has everything under control then I won't be in danger. I need to see Claire. She's probably a wreck right now knowing some maniac has Aaron."

Jack smiled as Kate grimaced in pain after taking two quick steps away from him, "If you don't get some rest and let that injury heal it could become infected and I'm sure you don't want to have it amputated, so please sit back down."

Not liking her options, Kate slowly hopped back to her make shift bed and lay back down, "If anything happens to Claire I'm holding you personally responsible."

"It won't." Jack said confidently, "She's my sister and I promise you that she's going to be fine. I'm just waiting on Sun's call and all this will be over."

Sun sat in the back of a police van, staring at the video feeds of the airport, pulling out her cell phone as she saw movement at bay 14, "I think they're getting ready to take off. Is everyone in position?"

"Yes, there is no way that plane will get into the air." A man replied from the roof of the large hangar.

"As you all know the main goal here is to remove the child from danger first, once the child is secured you will do what needs to be done, preferably keeping Christian alive. Is everyone aware of their orders?"

"Yes. We have a roaming camera inside the hangar as we speak, we are trying to send you the feed. They have the child guarded by two armed men, with a third holding it. Christian has only one man watching him."

"Do we have enough sharpshooters to take the two men out who are by the child?"

"Yes, but we'd prefer to wait until we have more."

"I'd prefer that to, but we don't have time." Sun said, checking her weapon one last time, "We are going to move towards the hangar, once we get into position I will give you the signal to take those two men out. Once they are out commission, you have the authority to kill anyone in that room."

"Understood."

Claire put her hand on Sun's shoulder, "I don't like the idea of guns being fired around Aaron, what if something goes wrong?"

Sun turned and knelt in front of Claire, "Listen, we have the best marksman in the world here. They will not miss. We have no other choice. Now, there's one thing I want you to do for me." Sun moved back over to the side of the van with the video feeds, "See this button here? It's an intercom, basically it's connected to a loudspeaker above this van. I want you to call Rahim's name when I tell you to. This is going to set everything in motion."

"Why? Don't you want the element of surprise?"

"Believe it or not no. In this situation they are all on edge, but once you call Rahim's name they will be momentarily distracted and in that split second, when they start looking around for where your voice is coming from, we will take them out."

"Please do not let anyone hurt Aaron." Claire pleaded.

Sun squeezed Claire's hand and smiled, "I promise you I will bring him back to you alive." Sun got to her feet, motioned for the men in the van to follow and they moved swiftly towards the doorway to bay 14.

Once in position, Sun called Claire, "It's time. Call Rahim's name, say you want to talk to him and then stay in the van until I return."

Claire took a deep breath and pushed the button in front of her, "Rahim, it's Claire, I need to talk to you now."

Rahim got off the hood of a car inside the hangar, "You two, go find out where she is."

Sun pulled out her cell phone again, "Take them out now."

Up on the roof two men aimed their high powered rifles and in unison opened fire. Instantly the two men hovering around Aaron fell the to the ground. Sun and her team raced inside as the rest of the men from the roof flew down from above.

After a quick, but deadly gunfight, Sun had secured the hangar, rushing towards Aaron who lay peacefully sleeping in the back of a car. She smiled as she picked up the innocent boy, holding him tightly as she walked out of the hangar.

"You haven't won you know...this isn't over." Rahim said from the ground blood pouring out of his chest.

Sun handed the child to one of her men and walked slowly towards the wounded man, "We have won. We have Aaron, that's all that matters right now."

"You should...know better... than that." Rahim winced, "I'm not the...only...one left."

"What are you talking about?" Sun said, kneeling down in front of Rahim.

Rahim let out a muffled laugh, "I already...sold Aaron..."

"Sold him to who?"

"Just know that...he'll never... be safe..." Rahim moaned.

Sun checked the pulse and sighed as she got to her feet, "I want two of you to take this man to the medical center at the base. Do not let him out of your sight." Sun walked briskly out of the hangar, smiled as she got closer to Aaron, taking him in her arms and happily walking back towards the van.

"It's me Claire, I'm coming inside." Sun said as the door flew open and Claire stood anxiously waiting.

She stood in breathless disbelief at seeing her son in front of her, gently taking him from Sun's arms and wrapping her arms around him. "I'm so glad you're okay. Thank you Sun. Thank you so much for bring him back to me."

"I'm just happy for you both. You need each other." Sun said with a smile. She hopped into the driver's seat and turned back to her, "Now, I will get you back to Kate."

Claire smiled and sat back down in her seat, "Thank you again."

**End of Chapter 9**.

**Comments and feedback are always welcome and appreciated**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10.**

**Bali**.

**Outside a makeshift triage center**

It was a short drive back to base, with Sun parking the van right in front of Jack. He walked around and opened the door for Claire, smiling as he saw his nephew safe and sound in her arms, "He looks so peaceful."

Smiling politely, Claire nodded, "Yes he is." She quickly began scouring the area for Kate, "Where is she?"

Jack turned and pointed behind him, "She's in there."

Claire handed Aaron to Jack and rushed into the small trailer, made eye contact with Kate and ran even faster towards her. She paused as she saw Kate all bandaged up, "Are you okay?" 

Kate looked down at her thigh and laughed, "Don't worry about that. I'm fine. Where's Aaron?"

"He's with Sun and Jack, he's fine." Claire smiled and gave Kate a big warm hug, "We have him back and we're never going to lose him again." It didn't take long for the hug to turn into a kiss as the two women tried to make up for lost time

Sun walked in and cleared her throat, "You have to get on a plane now. The people I work for want your son as much as Rahim and every other government agency in the world. I have a private jet waiting to take you back to LA."

"Now?" Claire asked as she got to her feet.

"Yes now." Sun replied.

"Where is my father?"

"He's in custody right now. I'll do what I can to see that he's not detained for long, but he does have a lot of explaining to do. He has taken a sample of Aaron's DNA and is doing a test on it now." Sun said calmly, before her face turned deadly serious, "I have to tell you that if that test comes back positive you won't be leaving with Aaron."

"What? You can't do that. I thought you were on our side?"

"I am, but everyone knows that if Aaron possesses the same DNA as the other killing machines, he can't be left alone. You know that to, deep down. Do you want him killing all his friends at school? Do you want him to kill Kate? I know this is a horrible situation for both of you, but let's wait and see what your father finds out." Sun turned and walked out of the small building.

Claire turned to Kate, "I can't lose Aaron again. I don't care what the risks are, I won't let him be turned into some lab rat."

"Whatever you want to do I'm with you." Kate said, holding Claire close.

"I want to get on that jet right now, just you and me and Aaron." Claire leaned in and hugged Kate again, "Can you fly it?"

"I'd rather we use their pilot, but either way I'll get us out of here." Kate whispered, enjoying another embrace with Claire.

"I'm going to get Aaron and then look for that plane." Claire kissed Kate passionately, squeezing her tightly, not wanting to let go, but knowing she had to. She slowly pulled away from Kate's soft sweet lips, "I'll be waiting for you. Are you sure you can move with your leg like that?"

"Nothing will keep me away from you." Kate said as she pulled Claire in for yet another kiss. "Just get Aaron and we'll get out of here and we'll continue our life together."

Claire smiled, backing up slowly, not wanting to take her eyes off Kate. Finally, as she got to the doorway, she turned around and started searching for Jack. Off to her right she saw him holding Aaron in his arms and she walked briskly towards him, "Hi there. How's he doing?"

"He's been sleeping most of the time. We're just waiting for the results of the DNA test."

"Okay, well I'll take him now." Claire said with a smile, happily putting Aaron back in her arms. "I'm going to go for a walk, let me know when the results are back."

"I will." Jack said with a nod.

Claire waved and headed towards the mostly abandon runway. With only a couple planes to choose from, Claire walked towards the Challenger 850 and knew it was the right one.

With an armed guard patrolling the area, Claire backed up a few steps and pulled out her cell phone. She called Kate.

Kate tapped her on the shoulder, "I'm right here."

Smiling at Kate, she pointed to the guard, "What are we going to do? You can't kill him, he's one of us."

"You don't have to kill someone to immobilize them." Kate smiled, "Wait here. I'll take care of the guard and we'll be on our way."

Claire knew she could trust Kate and quickly snuck behind the front of the large jet. She held Aaron close and watched as Kate moved in behind the guard. Just like she'd seen on many different occasions before Claire watched in awe as Kate methodically disarmed and immobilized the guard before flashing her cute little smile at her. Once she saw that it was safe, Claire rushed towards Kate, "Sometimes you scare me with how good you are at this spy stuff."

Kate put a frown on as Claire walked towards her, "Are you saying you don't find that sexy anymore?"

"Okay, maybe a little," Claire grinned, "but I'll be happy when you don't have to do that anymore."

"Soon Claire, very soon." Kate nodded, leaning in and kissing Claire softly as Aaron smiled his approval, "Now let's get on this plane and get back to the rest of our lives."

They hurried towards the plane, stopping as the side door opened and the stairs slid down towards them. When they hit the ground, Kate put her hand on Claire's shoulder, "Let me check it out first." She walked up the stairs, pulled out her gun and stepped inside.

"Put that away." Christian said from his seat, "Get Claire up here and let's get going."

Kate moved slowly towards Christian, gun in hand, looking cautiously around the seemingly empty plane, "Not so fast. What are you doing here?"

"We don't have time for this. Sun put me here. I need to do a DNA test on Aaron before she'll okay the flight. If you don't put that gun away and let me do my job everything you've worked for is going to be lost."

Moving in closer, Kate spotted the handcuffs on Christian's wrists, "I see she doesn't trust you anymore than I do. What happened to Rahim?"

"I don't know. I think he was shot during the raid, but I don't know if he's alive or dead. He's not your concern right now, so bring Claire up here."

"Just how are you going to perform this test like that?"

"You didn't think Sun would leave me here alone did you?" Christian said, turning around as Sayid and Juliet stepped forward.

Kate smiled at Sayid and gave him a warm hug and then did the same with Juliet, "I'm glad you two are here."

"Christian's right about one thing, we need to moving." Juliet said, sliding past Kate and hurrying to the front of the plane, "I just talked to Sun and she said Interpol is sending a team to relieve her of her duties, so we have to take off now."

Claire paused halfway up the stairs when she saw Juliet looking down at her, but relaxed when Kate stood beside her and waved her up. Feeling a sense of relief at seeing Kate again, Claire marched up the stairs and wrapped her arms around her, "What's going on?"

"Your father is here. He needs to do a test on Aaron."

"No. I'm not letting anyone take him away from us. Not now. We just got him back."

Kate pulled Claire away from the others, stepping into the bathroom for some privacy, "I don't like this anymore than you do, but we need to know what we're up against."

Christian stood up, "Claire. Claire. It's going to be fine. The odds of Aaron having the DNA pattern the others did is minimal at best. We still don't know if it will even work the same on humans."

Claire's eyes lit up at the sound of her father's voice and she stormed out of the bathroom until she made eye contact with him. "Then just leave him alone. He's been through so much already. As you can see, he's fine. He's just a normal little boy."

"I wouldn't do this if I didn't think it was important. We need to keep track of the DNA. Regardless of the outcome and regardless of what a horrible situation this is for everyone, Aaron is our only source of information right now. This is a painless test, a simple swab of his mouth. That's all."

Unsure of what to do or say, Claire looked over at Kate, "I don't know what to do. It doesn't feel right."

Kate smiled and walked over and put her hands on Claire's shoulders, "I think it's okay to do this. I'm going to believe that Aaron is never going to be affected by this DNA, but in the future this information could help save lives."

"Okay, but nobody is taking Aaron anywhere. Is that clear?" Claire asked as she glared at everyone in the plane.

Christian stepped towards Claire with a small carrying case in his hands, but as he tried to open it his handcuffs got all tangled up, "Could someone please remove these so I can do the test properly?" 

Juliet took the bag from Christian and pushed him down on the nearest seat, "It's a simple swab, I think I can handle this."

"You're nothing more than glorified nurse, you don't know how to handle DNA." Christian said with a heaping helping of disdain, "Where's John's team anyway? He said he'd have someone here so we could do the test in the air."

"Everything is taken care of." Sayid said calmly, "There's no real for him to be awake for this whole trip, give him a sedative."

"Wait." Christian yelled as he saw Juliet open a medical bag of her own, "You don't have to do that. I have information you need."

"Don't listen to him." Sayid warned, "He's been saying that since we caught onto what he was doing."

"No, I know something that I haven't told anyone. I know who Rahim is working for."

Kate pushed Sayid out of the way and put a gun to Christian's head, "Tell me who it is."

Claire rushed over and pushed the gun down to Kate's side. "Stop. He's still my father."

"He gave up that right the second he allowed this to happen to Aaron." Kate lowered her weapon slightly, but kept it pushed against Christian's chest while she turned to Claire, "If there's someone else out there then we need to know about it. We aren't safe until everyone connected to this is either dead or in jail."

"Fine, but I don't want you doing it. Let Sayid handle this." Claire turned away from Claire and looked directly at her father, "Don't play games with Aaron's life. If you ever want me to talk to you again you better tell us who's behind all this."

"Claire, it's not that simple. I think John already knows, so maybe ask him why he hasn't told you yet."

"That's a lie." Kate said, pushing her gun up against Christian's temple, "What is wrong with you? How can play with your daughter's life like this and your grandson? What kind of man are you?"

Claire pulled Kate's hand away from her father, "You are not going to kill him." After handing Aaron to Juliet, Claire spun around and got between Kate and her father. She grabbed a needle from Juliet's purse and held it out for her father to see, "Kate's right, you are only out for yourself, but it's time you told the truth. Who is Rahim working for?"

"Claire, you don't want to do this. I'm not the enemy." Christian flinched as Claire pushed the needle against his arm, "Fine, but it won't help, he's untouchable."

"Nobody is untouchable." Sayid said sharply.

"He's as close they come." Christian said boldly, "You can thank Kate for him being so diligent in his pursuit of you and Aaron."

"What is he talking about?" Claire asked, looking at everyone on the plane.

Kate turned to Sayid, "Is he telling the truth? Do you know anything about this?"

"I can say we have no concrete evidence as to his identity, we have been investigating some reports that Rahim has been in communications with a third party."

As everyone began talking at once, a voice came over the intercom, "This is your pilot speaking. We are getting ready to take off. Please get into your seats, buckle up and I'll fly you back home."

"Is that Frank?" Kate asked.

Sayid nodded, "Yes, he's the best there is."

Kate smiled and helped Claire to her seat, making sure both her and Aaron were safe and secure before moving across the aisle and sitting down beside Sayid. Juliet secured Christian in place before buckling herself in.

With everyone in their seats the large jet gathering speed as it moved down the deserted runway until it ascended into the sky. After some moderate turbulence, the plane settled down and as everyone let out a sigh of relief the TV monitor opened up above their heads.

A visual of a man in a black hood appeared behind a large metal panel. "Greetings all. I am sending this message to anyone and everyone associated with the child known as Aaron, son of Claire. You may have won the battle but this war is not over until I have that child. While you have weakened my inner circle, it won't last for long and soon you will feel the full wrath of my powers. Enjoy your time, but know it's short. We will meet again." Moments after the message came to an end, the lights in the plane went out and a colorless gas filled the cabin, knocking everyone out cold in a flash.

It was hours later when Frank landed the jet at a small landing strip just outside of Las Vegas. He stepped out of his pilot's chair, unlocked the cockpit door and stepped out past the kitchen and into the passenger area, stopping in his tracks at the lifeless bodies in front of him.

He rushed over and shook Sayid by the shoulders, calling out his name repeatedly as he checked for a pulse. After realizing Sayid was breathing, he continued to check on the others until one by one he had woken everyone up.

When he moved to Christian who was slumped over in his seat, he noticed blood at his feet and called everyone over. He lifted Christian up to find a knife stuck in his chest, much to the horror of Claire.

Kate quickly grabbed Claire and held her close as Juliet and Sayid moved towards Christian. After looking him over Juliet stepped back, "He's been dead for hours. What the hell happened here? Last thing I remember was getting into my seat."

"That's all I remember." Sayid said, still shaking the cobwebs loose, "We were in the air, so whoever did could still be on the plane."

"He was going to tell us who Rahim was working for." Kate said, trying to hold in her anger, "Someone didn't want him talking. We need to search this plane before we leave."

Frank stepped forward as Kate began looking at him, "I was flying the plane the whole time. I didn't kill him. I don't even know him. I knew of him, but I'm not a killer."

"You're the only who wasn't unconscious." Kate said, still holding onto Claire tightly.

"How do you know?" Frank shot back, "Whoever did this could've been faking they were asleep."

Kate looked at Sayid and Juliet but quickly turned back to Frank, "I trust them, but I don't know you well enough to trust you. So you won't mind coming with us will you?"

Frank smiled and put his thumbs up, "Hey, I was planning on meeting up with John anyway, so I'll be happy to come."

Juliet removed Christian's wallet and some papers from inside his jacket pocket, while Sayid picked up his briefcase from the floor. He sat it down on a seat beside him, opened it and let out a sigh as he saw it was empty, "Who brought him here? Sun?"

Claire stepped away from Kate, "She didn't say anything to me about, but she would've been one of the last people to see him. He was with Rahim when we raided their warehouse, but I don't think it was her."

"Frank, was Christian on the plane you arrived?" Sayid asked as he continued to look around the plane.

"John told me to be in the cockpit and make sure it was secure and not to come out until we landed. That's what I did." Frank said calmly.

Kate took Claire's hand and led her off the plane, stopping as they reached the ground, "I'm so sorry about your father."

"I can't believe someone we know did this. Why?"

"I don't know, but we'll find out who did this and they will pay. Right now, I want to get you somewhere safe." Kate smiled at Aaron as he opened his eyes, before smiling up at Claire, "John has a place lined up for us in Texas and that's exactly where we're going." 

"I have to tell Jack about our father." Claire said, still shaken by everything she'd just seen, "We don't know if there's more people after Aaron. How can we just leave?"

"Claire, we are never going to be free of all this, because Aaron is the only living human who has this DNA inside him. At best we've interrupted things for Rahim and his people, but we can't spend forever looking over our shoulder, because there's always going to be someone watching, waiting, so we have to get back to living our lives again." Kate held Claire close, "Trust me on this okay? John will make sure we are safe, as safe as we can be, but the only way to be certain is to live in a government controlled facility, where they can monitor Aaron 24/7, but in order for that to happen Aaron loses his freedom forever. They'll have to watch him his whole life to find out if he ever exhibits any of those symptoms."

"I don't like that either, but I'm not sure I can ever relax knowing he's always going to be in danger." Claire said, "Do you really think we'll be able to live the life we had planned? If you think we'll be safe then I'll go."

"There are no guarantees, but I want us to live a life where Aaron isn't hooked up to machines all day long. I want us to be able to go to the park together, to be able to play in backyard with Aaron and not have 10 security guards and cameras watching our every move."

"Okay, I want that to, so let's go."

"I need to call Sun one last time and I will let you talk to Jack before I'm done." Kate waited until Sayid had stepped off the plane before she moved away from Claire. Once she was for enough away, she pulled out her cell phone and called Sun.

"Kate, what happened on that plane?" Sun asked as she pulled her car off to the side of the road.

"Someone killed Christian." Kate replied bluntly, "I think he knew there was someone higher up than Rahim."

"How come nobody saw it happen?"

"They used some kind of gas to knock us out. He was dead when we landed. The only people on the plane were me, Claire, Juliet, Sayid and Frank. I can't believe one of them killed him. If they did, that means they are working for the enemy. Frank is the only one I don't know well, so he's my suspect."

"I'll do a deeper background check on all three of them, but what about Claire?" Sun asked, flipping through some documents in the passenger seat, "She was mad at her father for what he'd done, do you think it's possible she could've killed him?"

"No." Kate replied instantly, "Besides, she had no time to set up the gas on the plane. Whoever did this planned it in advance. I need to know if I can trust Sayid and Juliet. I'm going to call John now and make sure everything is set up in Texas, but I want to be kept informed of any new developments, okay?"

"Of course." Sun nodded, "You just take care of Claire and that little boy and I'll take care of the rest."

"Thank you." Kate said, relieved that she could relax, even if just for a moment. She then pushed John's name on her cell phone and waited for a reply.

"Hi Kate." John said calmly, "Are you back in LA?"

"Yes, but we have more problems." Kate said, keeping her head on a swivel as she continued, "Christian is dead and I don't know who killed him. It was either Sayid, Juliet or Frank, so you tell me which one of them is a traitor."

"I have some rather troubling information to pass on. Charlotte has given us a name of someone she says is higher up than Rahim, but still not the boss. It's someone from the island. Someone we thought was dead. Charlie Pace." John said

"What? No way." Kate said, not wanting to believe what she was hearing, "Charlie never did anything to hurt Claire. They were friends. I can't believe this. Do you have any proof?"

"I've been doing a lot of research in the last 24 hours and there have been sightings of Charlie in LA, Bali and in Russia. I believe he is alive."

"But why? Who's behind all this?"

"We all know Charlie is an addict. If he needed cash there's no telling what he would do." John said bluntly, "When I did a more thorough background check on Charlie I discovered that much of his history for the last few months before he boarded flight 815 had been erased or altered. What really gave it away was his bank account. Starting 6 months before the crash, he received $25K, each month until his presumed death. He has to be using an alias now, but we haven't figured that out yet, but we will.

"That's not reassuring enough John." Kate said, "I thought this would be over when we stopped Rahim. I just want to spend my time with Claire and Aaron. Now I have to tell her that her friend might be responsible for all this?"

"I hate to suggest it, but you could leave that out for now. I want you both to have the life you deserve, but you have to realize that the whole world is going to find out about Aaron sooner or later and that makes him a target." John explained as he sipped his coffee, "I have people working on the DNA day and night and we will come up with a way to counter what's inside Aaron. He's fine now and you have to believe he's going to stay that way."

"I'm not worried about him; I'm worried about the nuts out there that don't care who they hurt to get their hands on him. Claire can't take much more of this and quite frankly neither can I." Kate said loudly, verbally showing her anger and frustration at the situation, "We'll go to Texas, but I want you to set up a new place for us somewhere else, somewhere that only you know about. I don't feel safe right now. I can't help wonder just how much information these people have on us. If Sayid or Juliet were feeding them everything we know, we're as good as dead."

"Let's not go there." John said sharply, "I will find out if either of them has betrayed us, but I have to believe there's another explanation. I don't trust anyone and don't leave anything to chance. I've had people watching all of you since the day you started working for me and there's been nothing to suggest Sayid or Juliet have done anything wrong. Frank is a different, I know him personally. He doesn't work for me, so there is a chance he's been compromised. I'll look into it."

"Okay. How are we getting to Texas?"

"I have a charter bus in hangar 11 waiting for you. It's top of the line, fully furnished and I think you'll find it more than comfortable and very safe."

"Who's the driver?"

"Someone I trust. I have to go now. Charlotte is hungry." John said with a wicked grin as he waved at Charlotte in her tiny cell, "Call me if you need anything else."

"I will." Kate said with another relieved sigh. She put on a smile and walked back over to Claire, "Everything is ready if you are."

"I'm ready to get out of here. Let's go." Claire smiled, happily taking Kate's hand as she led the way through towards the hangar bay. 

**5 Years Later**.

**Austin, Texas**.

Claire watched as Aaron walked out to the bus, stopping to frown at his mother as she followed him just a little too close, "Mom, I told you not to do that."

"I'm sorry, I can't help it." Claire said, holding in her smile as she backed up the requested paces, "I'll see you later. Have fun."

"Mom, it's school. It's not fun." Aaron scolded yet again, finally getting onto the crowded bus and sitting down with his best friend Kenny from down the street.

After the bus drove off Claire walked back into her house, closed the door and began searching for Kate, finding her on the phone yet again, "Couldn't that wait? Aaron just left."

Kate shook her head and smiled at Claire, "He told you not to go out and walk him to the bus again. He's getting too old to have his mom holding his hand all the time. Besides, I was getting the final details of Rahim's trial."

"Was he found guilty? How could he not be?"

"Yes, he was, but he's not going to prison. He's dead."

"What?" Claire asked as her eyes lit up in disbelief, "How?"

"Someone shot him as he left the courthouse." Kate said, waiting for Claire to react before continuing, "John said it was a sniper from way off into the distance, but he did the job, but the question is, why now? There's been no sightings of Charlie for a year now so I thought we were through with this."

"I can't deal with that right now." Claire snapped, walking over to the window, shaking her head as she let out a deep sigh, "We've finally had a whole year where we were just a regular family and I don't want to lose that. So if we have to do the whole new identity thing then I'm all for it. I can't put Aaron's life in danger again."

"We talked about this." Kate said as she put her arms around Claire, "A new life sounds good, but there's a lot of sacrifices that we'll have to make if we want this to work. Number one is we'll be cut off from all our friends and family. No more talks with Jack. No more contact with anyone from the island."

"Whatever it takes. I still can't believe this isn't over." Claire groaned, "Who else knows about Aaron?"

"I don't know, but we need to let John, Sayid and Sun take care of it." Kate said, holding Claire close, 'I'm going to take care of you and Aaron and that's all I care about right now."

"Good, that's what I wanted to hear." Claire said with a happy smile, "Should I go get Aaron from school?"

"Hang on for a second." Kate said, "Let me call John back and he can start setting it up. It's going to take a while to do this. We're talking brand new identities, a new city, a full new backgrounds for all of us and we'll need to memorize it all before we can start our new life."

"I'm ready for it. I know I can do this." Claire said excitedly, hoping against hope that her nightmare would be over soon. "I still don't see how Aaron can be a threat. He's 10 years old now and there haven't been any signs of strange behaviour from him. So when is everyone going to see that he's not like those silly animals that killed people, he's going to live a long happy life and we are going to be with him every step of the way."

"I want that more than anything and I can't wait to watch him grow up and have the life he deserves. Doing it with you by my side is my dream come true. I hope you know that. I know our lives have been full of complications since the crash, but falling in love with you has been the best thing that's every happened to me and I want to love you until we are both old and gray."

Claire smiled and kissed Kate softly on the lips, "I can't think of anything I'd like better than to spend my life with you raising our son together."

** Jeff Shuman Elementary School.**

Aaron got up as the bell went off, following his classmates out the door, anxious to get outside for recess. He found his buddy Kenny and they walked out to the playground, climbing up and down the various pieces, sliding down the slide, generally having a great time.

As his feet touched the ground from the slide, he heard a bunch of kids screaming and yelling and saw two large men walking towards him. He knew that something was wrong and as the men pushed Kenny out of the way, sending the little boy stumbling backwards, Aaron got mad.

When all was said and done the two men lay motionless on the ground while Aaron walked calmly over and checked on his friend, "Are you okay?"

"I think so." Kenny said, wiping some blood off his hand, still in awe at what he'd just seen. "How did you do that?"

"I don't know. I don't remember." Aaron said, clutching his fists over and over again, "I saw them push you and I wanted to stop them and that's all I remember."

Kenny rushed over to Aaron, full of adrenaline at what he'd just seen. "No, you beat them up. You were punching and kicking and throwing them around like they were little babies. I want to learn how to do that."

"I need to go home." Aaron said calmly.

"School isn't over yet." Kenny said, still rubbing his knuckles as he bounced up and down beside Aaron, pretending to throw punches at him as he mimicked Aaron's movements to a tee.

As Kenny made contact with Aaron with a very soft punch, Aaron grabbed his head and stared at Kenny as if he were the enemy. Somehow, Aaron managed to control his anger, turning away from his friend. "I have to go. Bye Kenny." Aaron smiled and waved at Kenny before turning and running as fast as he could away from school and his home.

**The End**.

I am debating on writing a sequel, but I suppose that really depends on if anyone is interested in it. Let me know and thanks for reading.

**Buffyfaith19  
**


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